Chapter 3: Face Your Fears
Let’s face it, everyone is on a constant roll coaster of improvement. There are career goals, self-improvement, life achievements, following your passion, and the dreaded New Year’s Eve resolutions. Everyone has a bucket list as thick as a dictionary; a laundry list of goals to hit; or a refrigerator plastered with Post-it notes of reminders.
We all have some work to do and it starts with facing your fears.
For me, I had a vision of sharing rustic recipes from around the world through my blog. It all came to a halt when my mom passed away. It left a void in me that nothing could fill. I lost the urge to cook, I lost my ability to taste, and worse of all, I just shut down.
I was scared I had lost my biggest passion: cooking.
Back Story
She was also the person who started me on my journey of cooking. In our house, we wouldn’t be done with one meal before she asked us what we wanted for the next. I spent countless hours in the kitchen with her.
Sometimes she would get after me for not doing something correctly, and it was years before she trusted me to do other things at all.
Her diagnosis felt especially unfair because she never indulged in alcohol, cigarettes, or any harmful substances. I had done those things. I was a smoker for 20 years, the one who drank without restraint, the one leading an unhealthy life. It should have been me, not her. I would’ve traded places in a heartbeat, but that wasn’t a choice I could make.
I miss my mom often and wish she was here to yell at me for how I’ve been rolling spring rolls lately.
I discovered my stress limits, learned how much I could mentally withstand to keep moving forward and experienced life without a set agenda.
Another big part of this journey was learning about authentic foods by talking to local cooks and volunteering in kitchens. Getting experience and generational knowledge from various cultures has been invaluable to my approach to cooking.
With the marriage being over, and everything else I had gone through, I felt a strong pull to start over, or as they say, start a new chapter, tabular rasa… reboot… Minh 2.0… You get the idea.

Finding My Passion Again
Before meeting Becky, I believed my success was entirely up to me. That I should be able to create top-notch content without any help, without any support, and if I failed, it was my fault. Now I know having someone special believe in me can be the difference between my perfectionism holding me back and trusting myself to put my content out there anyway.
Sometimes her reminders are simple. “It’s okay to fail.” “You don’t have to be perfect every time.” But that’s all I need to hear.
My passion for cooking feels alive again. Along with a brand new blog, I’m working on a Vietnamese cookbook dedicated to my mom.
I invite you to follow me on my journey by subscribing to my blog and following me on TikTok.

- Using an expensive bottle of wine as a rolling pin doesn’t clean very easily, so you’ll have to drink it. Not really a fail but more of an FYI.
- Not all mesh colanders/strainers are made of metal. I found this out the hard way while making Fried Crispy Shallots.
- When making stocks or broths and the recipe says strain it, it means into another pot NOT put a strainer over the sink and strain what you have been simmering for hours on end. Doh!
Just visiting your website for the first time and looking around to deliciousness! Read this post. It parallels a post I wrote not so many years back; things I realized about myself, my life, and more importantly the lives and experiences and feelings of others important to me. You’ve done EXACTLY the same. Moreover, you are brave enough to reflect and to share. This makes me want to cook your food even more now.
Wow, this is just inspiring. I wish you the best of luck and hope one day I can find my passion like you did.
Aw, thanks Marissa! I’m glad it inspired you! Sometimes you just have to get it out, move on and keep pushing forward!