Sacramento entrepreneur · Vietnamese American
Mai Pham
Chef and founder, Lemon Grass Restaurant; founder and president, Star Ginger
Left TV news in 1988 to open Lemon Grass, then took Vietnamese and Thai cooking to a national audience.
Mai Pham is the chef and founder of Lemon Grass Restaurant in Sacramento and the founder and president of Star Ginger, a Roseville-based Asian food program for corporate and campus kitchens. Lemon Grass has served Vietnamese and Thai food on Munroe Street since 1988.
By the numbers
The data
Lemon Grass, a Sacramento restaurant for 38 years
Progress toward 50 years in 2038. Opened in 1988 on Munroe Street.
The story of Mai Pham
Pham was born in Vietnam and raised in Bangkok, where by age five she was already pounding chilies and spices with a mortar and pestle. Her family came to the United States in 1975, after the fall of Saigon. She earned a journalism degree at the University of Maryland and worked as a television reporter.
In 1988 she left television to open Lemon Grass. Her first cookbook, The Best of Vietnamese and Thai Cooking, was featured on NPR’s Fresh Air. Her second, Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table, was nominated for a James Beard award and named one of the top Asian cookbooks by The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. She also hosted the Food Network series Vietnam: My Country, My Kitchen.
Pham teaches at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, has written a food column for the San Francisco Chronicle and speaks at the CIA’s Worlds of Flavor conference in Napa, held Nov. 4-6, 2026. Through Star Ginger she brings her recipes to large foodservice operations.
Awards and recognition
Milestones
- 1975Her family arrives in the United States after the fall of Saigon.
- Before 1988Journalism degree, University of Maryland; television reporter.
- 1988Opens Lemon Grass Restaurant in Sacramento.
- BooksThe Best of Vietnamese and Thai Cooking; Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table (James Beard nominee).
- TVHosts Food Network’s Vietnam: My Country, My Kitchen.
- TodayFounder and president of Star Ginger; teaches at the CIA at Greystone.
- Nov. 2026Speaker, Worlds of Flavor conference, Napa.
Companies and ventures
Lessons for business builders
- Your first career can feed your second: a reporter’s storytelling sells a menu and a cookbook.
- Build a brand beyond the dining room through books, TV and teaching.
- License what works. Star Ginger takes proven recipes to kitchens the restaurant could never reach.
Sources
- Lemon Grass Restaurant
- Lemon Grass Restaurant: About
- Star Ginger
- Penguin Random House: Mai Pham
- Viking Range: Meeting Mai Pham (Nov. 2022)
- Worlds of Flavor: Mai Pham
Photo: Lemon Grass Restaurant (lemongrassrestaurant.com). Figures marked firm-reported come from the company; all others from the sources above, checked November 2026.
