About

If you're interested in me and my ADHD yapping- buckle up!

How it all started..

Growing up in a Vietnamese household, food was at our core. My mom cooking every morning for us before working her two jobs was her love language. When something went wrong, she never said 'sorry,' she would instead apologize through a plate of peeled fruit. Both my parents rarely said 'I love you' growing up but the absence of those words always translated into love through their devotion to giving my siblings and I a good life, which meant working multiple jobs to put food on the table.

Food was the sole reason we spent time together as a family. We didn't go to the movies or go skiing like other families but instead, we'd plan our hangouts around what we were going to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

When we would watch TV together, it was always the Food Network. I grew up watching Emeril Live and Iron Chef (the Japanese version, way before it became Iron Chef America). It was always a dream of mine to be a guest judge on Iron Chef or even just sitting at the counter and having Emeril cook for me live. I never fathomed that eating good food could be a career, but little Trang was a dreamer.

Picking up my first spatula..

While most people started cooking when they were forced to, whether because they were living on their own or just trying to survive, I started cooking because I genuinely wanted to. Food fascinated me. I was the youngest of three and was 'babysat' by my older brother and older sister when my parents would go to work everyday. Everyday my mom would come home and ask me if my siblings bullied me into making food for them. I always said no of course, because it wasn't bullying if you enjoyed it, right? 🙂

I would cook the simplest but most comforting things to my childhood- sautéed Chinese sausage and rice. When I was feeling fancy, which was often, I would add a fried egg and garnish it with scallions. I always felt proud of myself for being able to slice scallions at that age. I felt like I was really 'cooking' because I could cut up some green stems. When I wasn't feeling fancy however, it was a package of Indomie Mi Goreng or Mama Tom Yum noodles with an egg yolk mixed into the broth.

Now I will add, my brother never really bullied me into cooking (oops, that leaves you as the culprit sis ;)). He was actually an early inspiration into my cooking and baking journey! He's the oldest of us three and would often take it upon himself to cook for my sister and I. I'll never forget this incredibly flavorful yet simple dish he would make us; ground pork sausage and sriracha over rice- that's it!! It was so good and so easy. He hyper-fixated on that for a while and I didn't hate it one bit.

His next hyper-fixation really had me going though; tiramisu. When he first learned how to make homemade tiramisu, he would not stop making it. We had tiramisu for weeks! It was delicious. And then it was too much. And then we basically never had tiramisu again haha.

My love for baking..

Home Ec (aka Home Economics) was a required class in middle school. At the time, they taught us how to sew, repair random things, but also how to cook! This was the start of a long cooking and baking journey.

Growing up, I always baked from boxed mixes and it was honestly the only way I knew how to bake. I couldn't fathom baking a cake without a boxed mix and it took me a while to even wrap my head around the idea of baking from scratch.

I had a group of five friends and for all of our birthdays, we always baked a cake for each other. One of my favorite cakes I made at the time was a cake in the shape of a peace sign, for my friend Grace who loved peace signs! It wasn't until my friend Steph made a cake from scratch that my mind was truly blown away. The baking possibilities were much more than the Funfetti Cake mix that I knew like the back of my hand.

My sort-of professional intro into cooking..

In my senior year of high school, I had an extra elective I could take. While I easily could've used that elective to take a class that all my friends were in, I opted to take Culinary Arts with the other 'weird' kids. I use that term lightly and with the same tone as how the 'popular' kids viewed theater kids back then. Creative subjects and creative people had a negative stigma, for whatever reason. Anyways, I digress.

This was my most life changing class. I learned core fundamentals of cooking, without having to pay for culinary school. Now we didn't go as far a learning the mother sauces, but I did learn about knife skills, mise en place, how to make a roux, baking gingerbread from scratch, and so on. This was also when I first learned about puff pastry and how easy it was to make a turnover and danish. I never put down puff pastry after that.

This class taught me the key to making the the best corn chowder is mostly by adding more cream and salt. I learned how to make gingerbread houses in the shape of New York City skyscrapers (it was my dream to move to NYC one day, and oh man did I manifest the heck out of that). I had my first and might I add, the BEST Cubano I ever had, to this day. I'll forever thank Mrs. Lombardi for that and everything she taught me in that class about cooking.

Early college..

College was a pivotal point for my cooking in many ways. It took a halt and then we went from 0-100. Freshmen and sophomore year, I ate at dining halls for every meal. I gained the 'freshmen 15' and 'sophomore 30' (I mean to be honest, could you blame me? James Madison University was ranked #3 for best campus food in the nation at the time. I really couldn't help myself!).

I wasn't going to the gym and I wasn't running like I was in high school during lacrosse season. The only constant was that I knew I wanted to be in the hospitality industry. My love for food and fancy hotels drew me to that major, which was its own degree outside the school of business. I went about college for a few years until my dad pulled me aside one day and told me he wanted me to pursue a technology degree.

My parents weren't like other Vietnamese parents, not to say there's anything wrong with traditional Vietnamese parents. They just didn't fall into the stereotype of being tiger parents who wanted their children to be doctors or lawyers (no shade to those whose parents did, but the world should know that not all Vietnamese parents are raised the same- something I definitely wish I told my ex-manager). They just wanted us to be successful and if anything, more successful than them. So while it felt like my dad was now telling me how to live my life, I know that he did it in fear and his own anxiety that his daughter would live a hard and difficult life, one that he knew too very well.

My parents immigrated to America after the Vietnam War. They struggled to learn English and worked multiple jobs in order to raise my siblings and I and to give us the life we have now. I am forever thankful and grateful for their love, support and devotion to us.

It wasn't until 2024 when I thought I was going to lose my dad for the second time (the first scare was to a heart attack in 2008 when he was on a ventilator for 11 days and the doctors told us he wasn't going to make it) that he told me it was after a long day of me working as a poolside server at a resort, for basically no pay, that he realized this wasn't the life he wanted for me. It hurt him to watch me struggle, so he steered me towards a job that was much more financially stable and had more of a work life balance.

In 2013, I did as he asked- I picked up Computer Information Systems as a second degree. In 2014 when I was originally supposed to graduate, I instead watched all of my friends graduate. That summer I picked up my first internship in tech, working as an intern at Fannie Mae in DC, while all of my friends who graduated with their Hospitality Management degree became general managers at well known hotel and restaurant chains. I surprisingly didn't regret it.

I also want to add that during this time in 2013, I was having a rough relationship with food. I had just gotten out of a bad relationship and was going through an ED. I had two smoothies max a day and ate some carrots and crackers as a snack. I lost 16lbs in less than two weeks. I remember starving so much I could barely focus on studying for finals. This was a very impactful part of my journey with food.

Cooking in college..

A pivotal cooking moment for me was when I moved into an off-campus apartment my junior year of college. It allowed me the freedom to cook (and fail). A lot of my cooking stemmed from what I learned from my parents before I went off to college, like how to scramble eggs, cook up Chinese sausage (lap xuong) in a pan with some scallions (how fancy of me), and that one spaghetti bolognese from jarred sauce that my parents would always make when they thought we needed to eat more meat so we would grow (side note, I never knew spaghetti without meat sauce was a thing until college when my roommate would make it. Spaghetti with meat sauce was all I knew growing up). But my favorite thing was probably the Korean short ribs my mom would marinate and freeze for me, so anytime I wanted Korean BBQ (which was all the time at school, since we were quite lacking in the Asian food department), I could defrost the short ribs from the freezer and indulge in a flavorful, sweet and savory meal over a bed of jasmine rice. I grew up in Annandale, VA which was the original K-town (Korea town) of the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) so it was honestly hard to be without Korean food for a long time!

Going to school in the Shenandoah Valley meant I was in the heart of wineries and apple orchards! So it was an annual fall traditional for my friends and I to go to an apple orchard, pick apples and sip on hot apple cider. This was the time period I really learned how to make (and master) apple pie from scratch. Learning how to make a good pie crust was so important, which led me to make other pies, like a frozen food favorite of mine- chicken pot pie! I had Marie Callendar's at home 🙂

During this year, I also took two culinary classes which were required for me to graduate with a Hospitality Management degree. In that class, I was actually in the kitchen and I learned how to make different types of salads, dressings, croutons, and small bites here and there. The class also required us to take on an externship at Aramark, where we worked at dining halls around campus to get experience working in the kitchen. This helped us learn how to make food in masses.

In another cooking class, we were encouraged to cook and try different things we found on Pinterest and bring them to class to share with our classmates. In order to graduate with our hospitality degree, we had a senior capstone project that was known as our "themed dinner" and we essentially had to plan, sell tickets, cook, and execute the entire dinner. Everything from reception appetizers to a plated three course dinner, plus entertainment, decor, etc. My entire senior year of college was spent planning and executing this, along with working other themed dinners on the weekends. It was great cooking experience and we were exposed to all the elements of catering and managing dinners.

Super senior year and graduation..

I stayed a fifth year at JMU to complete my Bachelor's of Business Administration (B.B.A.) in Computer Information Systems (CIS). When I graduated in 2015, I graduated with two undergrad degrees, the B.B.A. in CIS and the Bachelor's of Science (B.S.) in Hospitality Management. I was offered 3 full-time jobs, with many interviewers in the tech space questioning my hospitality degree. One interviewer, however, saw it as quite an advantage. I was tech savvy but also had great interpersonal skills! This interviewer soon brought me on to her team and I worked at IBM for almost 4 years.

Post college..

When I graduated, I moved back home to Northern VA. It made the most sense since my job was there and I could save money living rent-free. Like most college students who moved back home after college, this meant trying to find normalcy in the space that was no longer solely yours.

After my ED in 2013, I leaned into meal prepping to try to rebuild my relationship with food. During this time in 2015, I can't say it was much better. I was demonizing salt and flavor. My mindset was that if it tasted good, it couldn't possibly be good for me. I meal prepped lunch every day for work but refused to salt my food. I relied heavily on Mrs. Dash to help me feel something when I ate but not even Mrs Dash could help me enjoy my plain chicken breast, boiled broccoli and plain whole wheat pasta.

Moving to New York..

In my last year at IBM, I switched projects and moved to New York to live with my partner. We had been doing long distance for a year and wanted to be able to see each other every day. Except since neither of us were able to find projects in New York, I had to get on a travel project that required me to be in Columbia, South Carolina every week and my partner was forced to train back down to Philly to commute to his client at that time.

There were no direct flights from where I was in New York to Columbia, SC, so most of my weeks consisted of taking 4-6 flights a week to get to and from there. If I thought my relationship with food was poor before, this was another level. I unsurprisingly picked up a frugal mindset since I was now paying NY rent. Breakfast was spent at the hotel lounge, eating whatever mediocre, barely edible continental breakfast they were serving. Lunch was an avocado I packed from home and sometimes a bag of Starkist tuna. I didn't want to spend money on a real lunch that would probably make me feel heavier than I already felt like I was, anyways. It was always so sad. I remember running to the Publix after work downtown trying to find any food that I could bring in for lunch that would be semi-good or even semi-good for me. I brought frozen microwaveable meals sometimes. Traveling every week was hard. It messed up my eating and workout habits and resulted in many breakdowns. One small perk though was occasionally, on my 2nd leg home from SC on Thursday, my layover would be in DC and my parents would meet me at the airport to drop off some food for me to eat. I cherish those moments so much more, looking back now.

Finally living in New York..

When I finally left IBM and that rough travel schedule, I didn't really end up somewhere better. I picked up a job in Investment Banking (IB) working on Bank of America's trading systems. If you know anything about IB, then you know I'd be lucky to find time to eat, nonetheless time to breathe.

I will say, I did a decent job the first couple of months at meal prepping breakfast egg bites and sad chicken breast lunches. The exhaustion really hit though and by the time I would get back home from work, I didn't have any energy in me to make dinner. I started skipping dinner completely.

When Covid hit and New York became an eerie ghost town, I started missing food more- missing food I couldn't have. This was when Trang's Kitchen Table was born! I started posting on there for fun, as a creative outlet outside of my miserable IB job. Inside my IB job, I was working 14 hour days. Because we were all working from home at this point in time, work essentially expected us to work more, which meant I had less time to eat. I started intermittent fasting and picked up an unhealthy relationship with fasting also. I went from fasting 16 hours a day to 23.5 hours a day, only allowing myself 30 minutes to binge eat as much as I could.

As I found my love for food again, I really enjoyed baking and getting creative on the weekends. I made cinnamon rolls for weeks straight, which really began the weight gain and eczema issues. Anything I was craving? I made it at home, because no restaurants were open to help me satisfy my craving. I also missed home so much and every Vietnamese person living in New York knows that there is no actual good authentic Vietnamese food in New York. Nothing tasted like home. This was pivotal to when I started learning how to make Vietnamese food that my parents would make.

Depression and ADHD..

When I first created Trang's Kitchen Table on Instagram, I met so many other food creators and food bloggers who were laid off but were able to make food blogging and content creation their full-time job. I thought that was really cool and I always wanted to do that, but I didn't think I could, so I didn't.. yet.

One night I mustered the strength and energy to update my resume, after working 16 hours at my IB job. I remember it being 1am and I was passionately writing a cover letter for what would be my next job and last job in tech. It was for a position at Peloton, which was flourishing and booming at that time, thanks to the pandemic. That cover letter was well worth the time because soon I received a call, a few rounds of interviews, and a new job offer I couldn't say no to - I was able to finally leave my IB job!

I won't bore you with the details of my 2 years there, because my first year there was everything I ever wanted in a job. The last year however, Peloton was going through a rough patch. Gyms were reopening and Peloton overhired and overestimated how much money they would be making. Our CEO and senior directors left, we were affected by three rounds of layoffs, and company morale was at an all time low.

At this point in my life, I was also having my own personal struggles. My mental and physical health were struggling. I was incredibly unhappy and depressed. I was going through ADHD executive dysfunction, unable to leave my bed or do anything and not being able to do anything just made me harbor guilt day after day, about how I wasn't being productive, about how I should've done more. I was undiagnosed with ADHD at this time which meant I was unmedicated as well. I didn't know or understand how to deal with my depression and I didn't realized ADHD was the root cause of it. My unhealthy eating habits also caused my eczema to be the worst it had ever been. There was no winning and I felt so completely helpless. I felt like I was at rock bottom. I cried for months.

Food had taken quite a back seat during these years. Work was so busy so I wasn't really active on Trang's Kitchen Table. One day I decided to watch an episode of Masterchef. One episode turned into one season and one season turned into ten. I was hooked. I wanted to be able to do everything the contestants on the show were doing. I was motivated again. I found a purpose to continue pushing on and living. I thought to myself, wow can a normal person like me get on a show like this? So I took a shot in the dark and submitted an application for season 13 of Masterchef, not knowing if the dinky looking website I submitted my audition video to was going to a real person or to a black void. I didn't hear back for a month. And then I got a call.

Laid off in tech..

These calls were the first of many I would receive over the next 6 months, inching me closer and closer to the show. Around this time, I also started seeing a psychiatrist and was officially diagnosed with ADHD and began medication. This brought me out of the darkest times of my life. I started practicing cooking, in hopes I could make it on the show. Work at Peloton was slowing down, for obvious reasons. Work still made me depress though. I felt like I wasn't adding value or the value I was adding wasn't being appreciated, but I found cooking as my outlet outside of work again.

In October of 2022, I received a company wide email about another round of layoffs and right after, I received a calendar invite. I knew my time had come. It was actually one of my Tiktok videos that went viral early on, with so many people trying to guess what company I was laid off from. Due to the nature of my NDA, I wasn't able to say in that moment, but now those of you who were wondering know!

I was honestly relieved. I was looking forward to having some time off to focus on something else. I also was literally going through having covid at that point in time, so not having to worry about work was a huge plus. I'll admit, the severance was helpful too. A month after that layoff, I received the call that I was going to be flown out to LA to audition for season 13 of Masterchef. Things were falling into place! Or so I thought.

Masterchef auditions..

I was flown out to LA to audition for Masterchef season 13, just a few days after returning from a month long trip to Asia. I travel to Japan and Vietnam every December, so this meant I had almost no time to practice cooking or baking before being flown out. Right before I left for Asia, they informed me that I needed to be able to make a dessert in 45 minutes and I honestly couldn't think of any dessert I could make that quickly in that time.

The first week of auditions really just consisted of quarantining. Everyone was isolated for 3 days until we all tested negative for Covid. This meant we were locked in our hotel rooms, with nothing but ourselves and what we brought. Thankfully this was the first season they allowed contestants to keep their phones, because otherwise I think I would've gone cabin fever crazy. They delivered food to our doors, which often came 2 hours later than expected, and cold. It was a weird time.

I hadn't been taking my adderall ever since I had gotten laid off, but for some reason, I thought it would be a smart idea to take it before I stepped into the test kitchen that day for auditions. Spoiler: it wasn't. I was too fixated on things that didn't matter and lost track of time. I didn't complete my dish nor taste it. I essentially completely blacked out. I felt like I had stage fright, but we weren't even on a stage. I was cooking next to my peers in a test kitchen, but I was getting judged and graded by some assistants and producers who were walking around. I knew I bombed that portion but I felt like I nailed the interview portion, so maybe there was hope?

The way they went about telling us if we made it to live auditions was an anxious process. They would call our rooms and one by one, we would be told to go to this room or that room. Everyone who went to room A made it to live auditions and everyone who went to room B, didn't. Unfortunately, I was one of the 30 who didn't make the cut, but what so many viewed as a rejection, I saw as room for improvement. I was so inspired and enlightened by all the people I met in LA, I wanted nothing more than to go home cook more to become a better chef. I'm still friends with so many of those Masterchef friends today. Here's a popup I hosted with a few Masterchef friends in November of 2025!

Present day..

After I got home from LA, I set out to do what I had wanted to do all along - work with food! I finally stopped pursuing the life my dad wanted for me (sorry, dad) and started living my life for myself. I started posting some reels and one went viral and I gained 20k+ followers from it! I then landed my first brand partnership in May of 2023 and have been doing this ever since!

In January of 2024, I was really struggling with my eczema and decided to do a fun experiment on myself. While I had tried Whole30 and an eczema detox diet in 2022 and 2023, nothing seemed to help, so in January of 2024, I decided to eat a tin of sardines every day for the whole month of January. I had learned about omega-3s and its anti-inflammatory properties from friends and sardines were really trending then. I decided to give it a shot and I was truly impressed by the power of omega-3s. My eczema healed tremendously. I found different and creative ways to eat sardines and my friends soon deemed me the sardine queen - a title I don't take lightly! I did an omega-3 January in 2026 where I focused on eating more salmon, in addition to sardines here and there, and it helped my eczema reset also. So if you're not a sardine fan, incorporating the omega-3s from salmon might be almost as beneficial! In between eating omega-3s, I also lean into holistic ways to heal my body (and I mean that in a both woo woo and non-woo woo way). Starting every morning with bone broth and celtic salt has helped too, to nourish my gut with vitamins, collagen, and hydration. I also lean on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practices to help influence my eating habits when my body is inflammatory, such as eating cooling foods like bitter melon and cucumber when my body is running hot or avoiding spicy food or 'hot' food like ginger and turmeric.

Today, you'll find me incorporating all these holistic approaches to my healing my eczema, while trying to maintain a healthy balance of eating what makes me happy. You'll also find me whipping up recipes on this blog and creating fun videos on social media for Trangs Kitchen Table and various brands! I am not going to lie, I miss my days working in tech. I miss the stability of it all and working with a team. I miss having vacation days where I actually turn my brain off and don't work. There is not one second where I don't work or think about work now, doing food blogging and content creation full time. Maybe there will be an opportunity for me to go back to tech in the future, but for now, I'll continue building my Vietnamese American legacy at Trang's Kitchen Table and I so very much appreciate you for being here and for even reading this far! 🙂