Yia Vang

Vang was born in Ban Vinai refugee camp in Thailand after his family had fled Laos at the end of the Vietnamese War after the fall of Saigon.[2][3] His father, Nhia Lor Vang, and mother, Pang Her, both widowed during the crossing of the Mekong, met at the camp in 1977 and married in 1978.[4][1] Vang was born in 1984.[1]

In 1988, when he was four, his family immigrated to the United States, first to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and then in 1997 to Port Edwards, Wisconsin; while growing up he learning butchering when his family would buy whole animals.[3][1][5][6] He graduated in 2010 from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with a degree in communications.[3][7]

Vang moved to the Minneapolis area and worked at Gavin Kaysen’s Spoon and Stable and other restaurants, first as a dishwasher and then as a cook.[3][4] He noticed that while the Twin Cities area has the largest Hmong population outside of Asia, it didn't have a restaurant dedicated to Hmong cuisine.[3][4]

Vang opened an estimated 100 popups that he called Union Hmong Kitchen with menus including his father's Hmong sausage recipe and his mother's hot sauce recipe.[2][3] He initially tried to cater to midwestern tastes but eventually decided it was disrespectful to Hmong food and decided to focus on traditional Hmong flavors and techniques.[3][8] In 2019 he was named MSP Magazine's Chef of the Year.[9]

In 2020 he started a crowdfunding campaign to fund opening of a restaurant.[3] The COVID-19 pandemic slowed the development, and he started a podcast called White on Rice.[3] Union Hmong Kitchen eventually opened a permanent space in a 290 square feet (27 m²) food stall in a food hall in Minneapolis' North Loop neighborhood.[3] Union Hmong Kitchen was the first Hmong food served at the Minnesota State Fair.[5]

As of 2022 Vang was still developing Vinai, named after the refugee camp in which he was born, which Esquire called one of the first dedicated Hmong restaurants in the United States.[3][10]

In June of 2022 he appeared on Iron Chef[3] and in November of 2022 he started hosting Feral, a show that explores the culinary use of invasive species such as wild boar, on the Outdoor Channel.[11][12][13][14]

In 2023 he was a James Beard Award semifinalist 2022 he was a James Beard Award finalist and Union Hmong Kitchen a semifinalist.[3][15][5] Francis Lam in 2021 called Vang "one of America's leading voices in Hmong cooking".[1]

In 2021 Vang became a United States citizen.[3][16]