Richard Văn Lê
Matta | Portland, OR
JULY 2023
Growing up with his mother in San Jose, Richard Văn Lê was exposed to Vietnamese homestyle cooking from a young age, although the two of them were no strangers to the McDonald's drive-through. He became interested in cooking by watching the Food Network, but it wasn’t until his mom passed away in 2015 that he came to realize that he had lost his connection to the Vietnamese food of his childhood. He started visiting his aunt frequently, who was a prodigious home cook. She taught him the ins-and-outs of Vietnamese cuisine, learning flavor profiles, cooking techniques, and a few keystone dishes. In 2018, Văn Lê moved up to Portland and took a job at Pok Pok to gain some real kitchen experience. He learned how to work out of a commissary, how to get his ass kicked during a busy shift, and most importantly, how to make the most of a tight space.
In late 2018, Văn Lê and his wife Sophia opened Matta, their Vietnamese soul food cart. As food carts are a fairly seasonal industry, their business didn’t quite take off until 2019. However, with growing support from the break dancing and Vietnamese communities, Matta was named Portland Monthly’s Cart of the Year in 2019. Since then, Matta has evolved into Văn Lê’s own version of nostalgic, American-influenced Vietnamese comfort food. His take on his mom’s breakfast bowl, with jasmine rice, curried hash browns, lime leaf, pork sausage patties, eggs, fried garlic, and fish sauce gravy is an ode to his mother’s cooking, while his fish sandwich and breakfast sandwich effortlessly combine classic Vietnamese flavors with the memories of him and his mother hitting the McDonald's drive-through..
