Diep Tran Location: Los Angeles Los Angeles-based Diep Tran is a Vietnamese-American chef best known for running the award-winning Good Girl Dinette in Highland Park. She co-authored The Red Boat Fish Sauce Cookbook, chosen as NPR’s 2021 Books We Love. In addition to Food & Wine, she has been featured The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Lucky Peach, Saveur, and others. Experience Diep Tran comes from a family of cooks who founded the Pho 79 chain of Vietnamese noodle shops after emigrating to the U.S. She grew up helping her grandmother in the kitchen preparing traditional regional Vietnamese food, though she attributes the film Babette's Feast as one of her early culinary inspirations. Diep worked for nonprofits for several years after college before opening her first restaurant Blue Hen. She spent a couple of years doing pop-up "Good Girl suppers" after selling Blue Hen, where developed and refined her concept before opening her popular Dinette in Highland Park. Diep has appeared in the Netflix series Ugly Delicious, KCET's Migrant Kitchen, and HBO Max’s Take Out with Lisa Ling. An advocate for worker rights and equity in the restaurant industry, she founded the Banh Chung Collective, a nationwide community of women, LGBTQIA, and people of color forging bonds over the making of the Lunar New Year banana leaf-wrapped sticky rice dumpling. Diep currently serves as the recipe development chef at Red Boat Fish Sauce. About Food & Wine Food & Wine, a Dotdash Meredith Brand, is an award-winning online resource for anyone passionate about the culinary world. With rigorously tested recipes and the most trusted restaurant, drinks, culinary travel and home coverage, we inspire and empower people everywhere to discover, create, and devour the best in food and wine. Learn more about us and our editorial process.