Thai Dang
Chef/Partner, Ramen-san, Sushi-san & Crying Tiger
James Beard-nominated Chef Thai Dang is a Partner at Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants' Ramen-san and Sushi-san, and will open his first restaurant with the Chicago-based hospitality group in 2025, Crying Tiger, a Southeast Asian concept. Dang is a Lettuce alum who spent his early culinary career at the company’s fine dining restaurant L20. Even while achieving wide acclaim for his Pilsen restaurant HaiSous: Vietnamese Kitchen, which opened in 2017, Dang remained connected with the Lettuce team, periodically consulting on menu creation and appearing in Ramen-san’s Chef Collaboration Dinner Series in 2023.
At HaiSous, Dang, along with his wife and Director of Operations Danielle, showcases the flavors and depth of Vietnam. Born in Vietnam and raised in Virginia just outside of Washington, D.C., Dang grew up celebrating the flavors and recipes his mother and sisters brought from Vietnam. His passion for the culinary world and family values stem from the kitchen table in youth where he learned to build bonds and relationships by connecting through food and went on to attend L’Academie de Cuisine in Maryland, where he mastered French cuisine and techniques.
After years of honing his craft at highly-regarded establishments throughout D.C. and Michelin-starred restaurants in Chicago, Dang teamed with his wife and partners to open his first establishment, Embeya, in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood in 2013, which quickly garnered national recognition as Best New Restaurant by Esquire. At Embeya, Dang was able to define and reinvent flavors and textures found throughout Southeast Asia using French techniques to create an original approach to what he calls “Progressive Asian” cuisine. He was nominated two consecutive years in Food & Wine People’s Choice “Chef of the Year” 2013 and 2014 and recognized by Zagat on their “30 under 30” 2013 list, as well as Jean Banchet “Rising Chef of the Year” 2014. As their Embeya chapter closed, the husband and wife duo traveled back to his home country to taste and experience the new Vietnam, but also to find inspiration from the old.
Their time back in Vietnam launched the idea for “HaiSous Vietnamese Kitchen,” where Dang employs the masterful techniques gleaned from his early professional years with a menu that showcases flavors capturing the country’s essence and his childhood experience through the lens of his new vision for Vietnamese cuisine. HaiSous is translated from Vietnamese and means “two sous.” or “two pennies.” This namesake suggests equality in partnership and shared visions in hospitality, while also forever reminding the couple of their humble beginnings that started with a dream and two pennies. The Dangs are now considered world class travelers, bringing groups of 20 VIP guests on yearly Culinary Food Tours to Vietnam and traveling for Chicago Press Tours both domestically and internationally with Choose Chicago.
HaiSous’ notable recognitions include: Nomination for the James Beard Foundation – Best New Restaurant 2018; a Michelin Bib Gourmand for three consecutive years, 2018-2020; #3 on Chicago Magazine’s “Best New Restaurants 2018”; one of Eater’s “Most Beautiful Restaurants in 2018”; and one of Thrillist’s “Best Vietnamese Restaurants.”
Dang’s professional accolades include: Three-time semi-finalist for the James Beard Foundation – Best Chef: Great Lakes; recipient of the James Beard Leadership & Resilience award 2021; Plate Magazine’s Chefs to Watch 2018; named National Chef Advisor for U.S. Food Asian Cuisine 2019; and contributor to Vogue Magazine’s “Best Books - A Place at the Table, New American Recipes from the Nation’s Top Foreign-Born Chefs” by G. Langholtz.
