Self-taught, research-driven and shaped by Nordic kitchens, Chef Hoang Tung has become one of Vietnam’s defining contemporary culinary voices. Through T.U.N.G Dining and Å by TUNG, he brings Vietnamese ingredients into an international tasting-menu language, creating food that feels inventive, natural, deeply personal and quietly transformative.
Chef Hoang Tung did not begin with a traditional culinary path. Before entering the kitchen professionally, he studied economics at South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, a background far removed from the world of tasting menus and fine dining. Yet this unconventional beginning would later become part of his strength. Without being confined by a formal culinary framework, he approached food with the curiosity of a researcher and the freedom of a self-taught creator.
His culinary career began and flourished in Scandinavia, where he trained in respected Michelin-starred restaurants such as Demo and Ask in Helsinki, and Kiin Kiin in Copenhagen. These experiences shaped his sensitivity to seasonality, restraint and natural expression. From Nordic cuisine, he absorbed not only technique, but also a way of thinking: that food could be precise without being rigid, minimal without being empty, and deeply emotional without losing clarity.
Chef Tung’s philosophy is captured in the spirit of his namesake restaurant: Twisted, Unique, Natural and Gastronomic. Together, these words describe a culinary language built on unexpected combinations, contemporary technique and a deep respect for ingredients. His menus draw inspiration from many corners of the world, yet Vietnamese cuisine remains the emotional centre. For him, innovation does not mean moving away from origin. It means finding a new way to express it.
In 2018, he returned to Vietnam and won the Bocuse d’Or Bronze in Vietnam, marking an important moment in his journey. At the age of 28, as a self-taught chef, he became one of the youngest Vietnamese chefs to bring his restaurant onto major regional and international culinary platforms. His achievements include Asia’s 100 Best Restaurants 2021 by The World’s 50 Best, Forbes Vietnam Under 30, Chef of the Year at the Vietnam Restaurant & Bar Awards 2022, and Tatler Asia’s Most Influential Vietnam 2024.
With T.U.N.G Dining in Hanoi, Chef Tung helped pioneer the tasting-menu format in Vietnam. Inspired by the warmth of Nordic homes, the restaurant offers an intimate 25-seat experience where guests move through a serene, multi-course journey. Its menus are refreshed every three months, honouring seasonal Vietnamese ingredients while combining them with gastronomic techniques and contemporary aesthetics.
Å by TUNG in Ho Chi Minh City continued that vision with another distinctive chapter. Opened in 2021, the restaurant introduced an extensive 20-course tasting menu, set within a space inspired by Nordic architecture, ice caves and Scandinavian atmosphere. Together, T.U.N.G Dining and Å by TUNG reflect Chef Tung’s desire to create not only restaurants, but complete worlds of taste, mood and memory.
Today, Chef Hoang Tung stands among the chefs shaping the next chapter of Vietnamese fine dining. His work is not about imitating global standards, but about giving Vietnamese ingredients, flavours and imagination a language the world can understand. Through each menu, he continues to prove that Vietnamese cuisine can be both rooted and boundaryless, simple in spirit yet limitless in expression.