Today we’d like to introduce you to Hao Tran and Dixya Bhattarai.
Hao and Dixya, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Dixya and I met through a mutual friend who thought we had similar interests in food culture. We met and found out we had not only similar goals but wanted to explore the possibility of offering our culturally influenced foods to Fort Worth. We started doing in-home dinner, which progressed to pop-ups, events, and classes. We have also done chef collaborative dinners with some talented and amazing chefs. Each one was a learning experience as we have never had any restaurant experience.
But by far, pop-ups have had the most impact on us. We get the showcase the venues we are in and be creative in what we make based on the seasonality of ingredients. Our dumplings are truly artisan, using mostly local ingredients, whether it locally made kimchi from Mockingbird Food Company or freshly picked pears and each dumpling is crafted by hand. We are also excited to announce that we are opening our culinary studio and market, which will include the availability of our dumplings, in the spring of 2019.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As Theodore Roosevelt would say “nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty.” We knew we could make a quality product, but it is laborious, and to keep up with demand was a struggle without sacrificing quality. Dixya and I also have full-time jobs. She is a registered dietician, and I’m a teacher. We have spent many days sleep-deprived!
But we feel we are carrying out a passion for us, and we have given our hearts into this endeavor. It makes us so happy to do what we do so no matter the amount of work, we will continue as long as it lasts. We also feel fortunate that the community has really embraced us. It is such an honor to be around so many talented chefs who support what you are doing and a community of people who want to see you successful. Truly that is the key to our continued success.
We’d love to hear more about what you do.
As mentioned, Dixya is a registered dietician and is also the creator of the blog Food, Pleasure, Health, where she educates people how to eat healthy and shares recipes. I’m a chemistry teacher so teaching people how to cook comes naturally for me. Together, we are the makerspace of the culinary world. Hao and Dixya is our brand, and we offer culinary adventures, cooking classes, private events and do pop-ups. We want to take people on a culinary journey, whether they’ve never tried dumplings or enjoying something they can’t get anywhere else.
We celebrate both our cultures too. Dixya is Nepalese, and I am Vietnamese. I think that allows us a more global palette to use in our dishes. I think we are best known for our dumplings: the Nepalese MoMo and bao buns. We have the dumplings staples like the MoMo or sumai, but we like to use seasonal and local ingredients too. We have braised pork in local beers, Malabar spinach from a local garden or organic free-range chicken from a nearby farm.
These are ways to differentiate us and also incorporate and collaborate with local producers and farmers. I think this is key to the quality of our food and one of the essential tenets of our business to retain quality, no matter how many dumplings we make.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
The past eights months since we started the journey, we are incredibly grateful for the support and recognition. Our successes have really been created by the community of people and culinary experts we have been privileged to know. There is an exciting future for Hao and Dixya as we will have a culinary studio and market in the spring of 2019.
Our pop-ups will continue as we want to showcase the cool venues and spaces we have in the area. Our stance won’t change on the quality though, no matter how big we get, I feel retaining the artisan creativity is a must for us as it part of who we are.
Contact Info:
- Email: haoandixya@gmail.com
- Instagram: hao_dixya
- Facebook: Hao and Dixya
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
