Hanoi cook makes Tet feast tray using 'sweet' ingredients
Imitations of Tet meals made of cake and fondant by a baker in Hanoi amaze many people because they look just like the real thing.
When Thuy Duong, a 30-year-old girl from Thanh Xuan District in Hanoi, shared photos of a Tet feast tray with the caption "Old Flavor" on the e-group "Esheep Kitchen Family," they received more than 7,000 reactions and thousands of complimentary comments.
| The Tet feast tray, which includes six staples as well as bowls, plates, and chopsticks, is made of cake and fondant. Photo courtesy of Thuy Duong/Yeu Bep Esheep |
"I've been studying away from home since I was 12 years old, so I rarely got to stay at home, and I couldn't afford to come back often to savor my mother's cooking. The only time I could enjoy so many delicious dishes was during Tet," Duong said, explaining her decision to make replicas of Tet meals with cakes.
She added that all the bowls, plates, chopsticks and six traditional dishes were made of cake, sugar and chocolate.
The dishes, bowls, and chopsticks are crafted from fondant, cake and candy, making them incredibly realistic and as appetizing as the real thing.
"If I hadn't been told they were made of cake, I would have thought they were just any cake tray. I looked over and over again and still couldn't tell the difference," wrote a group member nicknamed Minh Hanh.
| The bowl with the pork rind soup is made of fondant with the decoration of the bowl is based on an existing motif. |
In late 2024, the girl decided to make a tray of banh chung (square sticky rice cake), fried spring rolls, pork jelly, pork rind soup, pickled shallots, pork bologna, and roasted pork mixed with five-spice powder. The dishes are made with real-sized baking ingredients and are fully edible.
| Banh chung and jelly pork are both made from fondant. |
"In my memory, the flavors of Tet are fried spring rolls stuffed with meat, wood ear, scallions, shiitake mushrooms, and cilantro, not just a simple meal like every day. It's a plate of banh chung eaten with shallots pickled by mom, a hot bowl of bamboo shoot or pork rind soup that we usually don't have time to prepare," the young girl confided.
To create the most realistic feast tray, Duong and her eight teammates spent five consecutive days researching the textures of the dishes, as well as the shapes of chopsticks, soup spoons, and porcelain from the early 2000s. She was responsible for the main stages, management, and supervision, while the others handled the accessories. The main ingredients are powdered sugar and chocolate.
In particular, for the fried spring rolls, fondant was kneaded to make replicas of meatballs, wood ear, shiitake mushrooms, and shredded carrots, all mixed together and wrapped in thin rice paper to create a puffy surface. For the sticky rice cake, four members took thousands of sugar candy balls to make fake sticky rice grains that were boiled for more than 10 hours.
| Banh chung looks gorgeous yet delicious. |
For the pork jelly and pork skin soup, Duong heated gelatin (a binder commonly used in baking) to make it translucent, revealing the "meat" and "vegetables" inside.
In addition to the food, the chef and her team observed utensils from two decades ago on the Internet and asked their families in the countryside to find similar items and send them the pictures.
After the bowls and plates were shaped from fondant, flowers were drawn on their surface, interestingly accompanied by artificial chips.
Duong also spent a lot of time finding the camera angle that would evoke the most emotion. In the end, the Tet tray is presented next to a vase of colorful dahlias and a small peach blossom branch decorated with balloons and lucky money envelopes.
"I want to use my baking skills to create replicas of the traditional Tet feast tray so that people who live far from home can relive their memories," Duong said.
| Thuy Duong and her fondant and cake Tet feast tray. |
She hopes that the "sweet" Tet dishes will spread the old spirit of the Lunar New Year and remind everyone that although life has changed a lot, traditional values are still precious and must be preserved.
Earlier, for the Mid-Autumn Festival, Duong created a 3D mooncake called "Memory," which also went viral on social media, inspired by the well, ancient trees, mossy brick wall, and medieval kitchen that are features of the North Vietnamese countryside.
"I have a lot plans for the New Year, and I will definitely put my mark on not just Tet but other holidays to promote Vietnamese food culture," the girl revealed.
