Today we’d like to introduce you to Lan Tran.
Hi Lan, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in the kitchen. In my family, the kitchen wasn’t just where food was made — it was where everything happened. My mom, aunts, and grandmothers would spend Sundays cooking together, telling stories, arguing over whose pho was better, and tasting sauces straight from the pot. If you grew up that way too, I can spot you a mile away.
I’m Vietnamese, but I also grew up in New Orleans, so my cooking naturally leans heavily into both Vietnamese and Cajun/Creole influences. About 12 years ago, I moved from New Orleans to Dallas, and it’s actually been really fun bringing those flavors and traditions with me here. Even though Dallas and New Orleans are different cities, there’s still a strong connection through food. So many people from Louisiana ended up in Texas after Katrina that there’s this familiarity here that still feels a little like home to me.
I love cooking food from all over the world. One of the things that fascinates me most is realizing how many cultures essentially have the same dishes, just with different techniques, spices, or ingredients. Every culture has some version of soup, dumplings, stews, noodles, rice dishes, or bread. We just call them different things. I think food is one of the clearest reminders that people are far more alike than we think.
To me, food has never just been about eating. It’s one of the purest ways people care for each other. You see it when someone brings soup to a sick friend, a casserole to a new parent, or spends hours making a family recipe for a holiday gathering. It’s effort, time, memory, and love all wrapped into one thing sitting on a table. I always say if i’m making pho for someone, it’s an act of love because you really spend so many hours in the kitchen making it.
Over time, I started feeling like we were losing some of that. Everyone’s busy, everyone’s rushing, and sitting down together for dinner just doesn’t happen the way it used to. One of the biggest reasons I wanted to start my blog was honestly to help get people back into the kitchen again — even if it’s just one meal, one recipe, or one night where people slow down and eat together instead of grabbing food in separate rooms.
I had wanted to start a food blog for years. During COVID I kept thinking, “This is the perfect time,” but I still put it off. Then one day a few years later, I finally got tired of waiting to feel fully ready. I grabbed a notebook and started writing down ideas — the name of the blog, recipe ideas, what I thought the website would look like, all of it. What’s funny is I found that notebook recently, and the blog today looks almost nothing like what I originally imagined. But I think that’s how creative things work. You start with one idea and it slowly becomes something else entirely.
When I started, I genuinely didn’t have some huge strategy about followers or numbers. My mindset was simple (and still is): put the work out there and trust that the right people would eventually find it. I just wanted to create honestly and share recipes that meant something to me. Even now, that’s still the goal. If a recipe inspires someone to cook for their family, try something new, or just spend more time around the table with people they care about, then I feel like I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, but honestly, I never expected it to be. I knew going into it that building something creatively from scratch was going to take a lot of time and work. During that first year especially, I poured everything into it. I’d work my full-time job during the day, then come home and spend nights and weekends recipe testing, cooking, photographing food, writing blog posts, editing videos, learning social media, and trying to figure out how all of this even worked.
One of the biggest challenges was simply learning everything on my own. I had no background in website design, WordPress, photography, or video editing. People think platforms make it easy because there are templates, but when you’re starting from zero, even simple things can feel overwhelming. I spent countless hours watching tutorials, Googling problems, trying to figure out why something on my website suddenly broke, or teaching myself how to edit content properly. There were definitely moments of frustration where I questioned why I was making things so difficult for myself.
Growing the blog has probably been the hardest part. There’s so much noise online, and it’s easy to get caught up comparing numbers, followers, views, and engagement. But from the beginning, I tried very hard not to attach myself to metrics. I wanted growth to happen organically. Even if only a small group of people connected with what I was creating, I was okay with that. The goal was never really about becoming an influencer (and still isn’t) or chasing numbers. It was about creating something meaningful and sharing recipes that might inspire people to cook, gather, and slow down a little.
Looking back now, I’m actually proud of how much I taught myself along the way. I think there’s something rewarding about struggling through something completely unfamiliar and eventually realizing, “Okay… I actually built this.”
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I run a food blog across my website, newsletter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok where I share recipes, cooking content, and food stories. The blog is really about getting people back into the kitchen and helping make cooking feel approachable again. I think a lot of people have lost confidence in cooking or feel like everything has to be perfect, complicated, or restaurant-level to be worth making, and I’ve never believed that.
The reality is the food blog world is incredibly saturated. If you search almost any recipe online, you’ll find thousands of versions of it already out there. So I never went into this thinking I was reinventing food or creating things nobody had ever seen before. For me, it was more about creating through my own perspective and experiences. Being Vietnamese and growing up in New Orleans heavily shaped the way I cook, but I also love exploring international dishes and techniques from all over the world.
A big part of my blog focuses on seasonal ingredients, sustainability, and making the most of what you already have instead of constantly overbuying or wasting food. One of my favorite series I do is called “Fridge Roulette,” where I create meals using random ingredients I already have in my fridge or pantry. I actually enjoy that challenge because it forces creativity, and it’s probably the closest thing to how real people actually cook at home.
I also think what sets me apart is that I never really approached this from an influencer mindset. I’m not trying to sell some perfect lifestyle or pretend every recipe magically comes together in one take. I like talking about the process, the mistakes, the recipe testing, and the reasoning behind why something works or doesn’t work. I think people connect more with honesty than perfection.
What I’m probably most proud of is simply starting and sticking with it. The blog today looks nothing like what I originally imagined when I first opened that notebook and started writing ideas down, but in some ways I think that’s a good thing. It’s grown naturally over time, and so have I.
I’m also pretty proud that after nearly two years of trying, I was finally accepted into Google AdSense. That may sound small to some people, but I worked incredibly hard learning SEO, website structure, recipe formatting, and all the behind-the-scenes parts of blogging that most people never see. Google has fairly strict standards when it comes to website quality, structure, originality, and search performance, so getting accepted felt like validation that all those late nights figuring things out actually meant something. It’s definitely not paying for a luxury vacation anytime soon — probably not even a Happy Meal some months — but I was genuinely excited when that approval email came through.
Any big plans?
I do still work full-time as a Business Development Consultant, and I recently started a new position, so balancing both worlds has definitely been challenging at times. When I first started the blog, I was posting three times a week consistently while also working full-time, and honestly, I don’t even know how I kept up that pace looking back. Most nights I’d work on blog content after work and spend weekends recipe testing, filming, editing, or writing.
A few months ago, though, I realized something funny was happening: the creative outlet I originally started to escape work stress was starting to feel like another job. That was a difficult thing to admit because I put a lot of pressure on myself to stay consistent and keep growing. Eventually I had to step back and accept that forcing creativity usually doesn’t lead to good creative work anyway.
So I made the decision to slow down a bit. Some weeks I post twice, sometimes once, and honestly, I’ve become much more at peace with that. I’d rather create something thoughtful that I’m proud of than constantly push content just to meet a number or schedule. Once I let go of chasing metrics and arbitrary goals, the process became enjoyable again.
Right now, I feel like I’m finally in a healthier rhythm with it. My full-time career keeps me busy, but I still genuinely love the creative process — developing recipes, putting my own spin on something trending, introducing people to Vietnamese dishes they may have never heard of, or creating fun themed recipe series that challenge me creatively.
As far as the future, I really just want to continue growing organically and building something that feels sustainable long-term. I think there’s a lot of pressure online to constantly scale bigger and faster, but I’ve learned that I enjoy creating much more when I’m focused on the work itself rather than trying to force a particular outcome.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://the-sustainable-kitchen.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.sustainable.kitchen/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_sustainable_kitchen
