In her experience, most vegan dishes at Vietnamese restaurants in the Netherlands are not actually vegan, as they’ll often contain chicken stock or fish sauce. Being vegan herself, that’s how she ended up having her own vegan Vietnamese food truck!

Ha Bui-Versteeg is originally from Vietnam herself. She has been cooking since she was 10, for family. The first time she tried eating vegan/vegetarian for a while was when her grandfather was sick. According to Vietnamese Buddhist superstition, if you eat vegetarian for a month it will bring good luck. Her grandfather became better and she also quite liked eating vegetarian. She knew one day she wanted to go vegan.

She moved to the Netherlands and eventually became vegan when she moved in with her vegan husband. Since she loves Vietnamese food but got disappointed in Vietnamese restaurants she developed the ambition to cook Vietnamese food, but truly vegan. That’s how Chay originated. ‘Chay’ means vegan/vegetarian in Vietnamese. Read more