Minnie Luong, head of Chi Kitchen in Pawtucket, came to the United States as a small child, in dramatic fashion.
“I was born on a rice farm in Vietnam,” she said. “My father and I left as boat people and lived in two different refugee camps before ending up in Boston.”
While she doesn’t remember any of that experience, she has since been actively and passionately creating her own experiences, especially when it comes to culinary endeavors.
A foodie and self-described autodidact, Luong has always loved trying new things. Coming from a “food-obsessed family,” she remembers her father fishing for squid at Point Judith, pickling and preserving, and crafting exotic, home-cooked dishes.
It was while living in Cambridge, Mass., that she first tried making kimchi, a Korean side dish made from salted and seasoned fermented vegetables, such as cabbage.
“It came out disgusting,” she said solemnly. “I didn’t touch it again for six years.”
Meanwhile, her dad, a widower, remarried and moved to Pawtucket; he and Luong’s stepmother work at electrical manufacturer Eaton Corp. in East Providence. It was a while before Luong again tried and at last mastered the art of kimchi.
At first, she “just planned to do a food business,” but not as a consumer-packaged goods production. Chi Kitchen’s small team began producing kimchi at Warren culinary incubator Hope & Main three years ago.
Kimchi is a very special kind of food, steeped in Asian tradition. It’s high in sodium – Luong said recommended daily allowance is about 2 tablespoons – but is loaded with probiotics, is free of gluten, MSG and preservatives, and comes in a vegan version. With the metabolic changes involved in making fermented food, it is a more complicated process compared to other dishes.
“It’s on its own timeline. Once you start making it, you can’t stop. I was [regularly] running out to Warren to check on kimchi,” said the mother of two.
Due to margins, costs and other factors, it was about six months in when Luong realized that she needed her own kitchen to make hers a viable business. Tim Greenwald, her husband and co-owner, was there for support. Working in community-supported agriculture software, he is regularly in contact with farmers that provide fresh vegetables used in kimchi.
Rent was affordable at a former glass-blowing studio at Lorraine Mills in Pawtucket – amid brewers, artists and woodworkers – and Chi Kitchen made the move. Luong raised a modest amount of money for the transition, but the fact that kimchi is a high-touch product not requiring much specialized machinery worked to her advantage in simplifying the process.
Kimchi’s unique preparation method attracted the attention of Brown University last year. A biology student approached Chi Kitchen to study how bacteria impacted its final product.
“They came and swabbed all over,” said Luong, finding that vegan and traditional styles of kimchi pack equal, impressive health benefits – and that basically anything would ferment in Luong’s kitchen environment.
‘Statistics say that kimchi and fermented foods will be on menus in 2019.’
MINNIE LUONG, Chi Kitchen head
Where Hope & Main was the perfect place to get a start, Luong saw her scholarship to a Goldman Sachs program as the boost that helped her build her business – an important educational milestone.
She applied for the 10,000 Small Businesses Program last summer. And then discovered that she was accepted – and also that she was pregnant with her son.
“I was on the fence” on doing the program to grow the business at that point, Luong said. “But I was impressed with the improvement statistics based on conversations with them. I realized, ‘I’ve got to do this now.’ It was kind of like my thing to do for myself.”
With the program’s knowledge under her belt; the arrival of baby Rumi, who joined big sister Lakshmi at home; and $125,000 in financing to fund expansion of manufacturing operations at Chi Kitchen’s Pawtucket space, things are cooking.
Establishing systems and operations needed to keep the quality of the product high was a major challenge, said Luong. But the Goldman Sachs program helped her to see her company as a business, a manufacturer, and moving ahead.
With Chi Kitchen kimchi offered in more than 100 retail shops and restaurants in the region – such as Dave’s Market and Whole Foods – the company’s new, improved space will include a research-and-development kitchen and licensed-kitchen rental space to other emerging food companies, said Luong.
Lean manufacturing, with help from Polaris MEP, is in Chi Kitchen’s future as well. The theory behind it lines up with the company’s Asian influence, Luong said.
Being self-taught, Luong feels it’s her mission to talk and educate about kimchi. She wants it to be a tabletop staple, such as hummus or yogurt.
“Statistics say that kimchi and fermented foods will be on menus in 2019,” said Luong. “It’s such a unique food. People have been making and eating it for thousands of years.”
