(clapping rock beat)
- [Narrator] Born and raised in southwest Detroit,
George Azar, a first generation Palestinian,
has cooked and trained in fine dining
at some of the top restaurants around the world.
In coming home, he saw a void in the culinary landscape,
and taught himself to cook the
thing he loves to eat the most, Vietnamese.
And shared that cuisine and excitement for it,
with the people he grew up with.
Now in the middle of rebuilding his restaurant,
Flowers of Vietnam, George is bringing those flavors
and techniques that he learned,
back home to southwest Detroit.
(upbeat drumming jazz)
- We try to keep it as genuine as possible.
'cause I'm not Vietnamese, - Okay.
- So I feel like I need to respect that as much as possible.
- Well let's see if it's genuine or not!
- Oh chef, oh chef! - (laughing)
- Chef I hope you brought your knives.
- I brought everything from my stall chef,
yes chef. (both laughing)
- We're cooking Bo Tai Chanh.
A cured beef salad that's sliced thin.
We sear it in a spiced mix with ramow.
Do you know what rau mau is?
- I don't - It is,
I call it, the Herbs de Provence of Vietnam.
Perilla, a rice paddy herb, mint, rarump,
Thai basil, cilantro, the little rau mau salad
and some seasonal fruit.
- That's what I love about Vietnamese cuisine,
it's so fresh, I love that you're bringing that to Detroit.
- Vietnamese food seems to be something
new to Detroit proper.
I couldn't tell you how many times, someone comes in here
and says, "Man, I've never had Vietnamese food before."
Everywhere I've ever lived, has been Vietnamese food
in close proximity. - Yeah.
- And one day, I'm like man I gotta drive
all the way to Madison Heights right now,
to get a Banh mi and a boba smoothie?
- As chefs, we wanna cook what we wanna eat too so--
- Right, so that's exactly how we really started it,
it's exactly how it started, I'm like man what do I,
man, I'm craving this the most everyday!
- Where does this knowledge of Vietnamese come from man?
- One is through research, the other,
more importantly, is from my sous chef.
In terms of authenticity, when we sit down
and design menu items, stuff like this where,
geographically, it makes more sense to do.
- Born and raised Detroit?
- Absolutely.
- And your parents?
- From Jordan, but they're Palestinian.
Only time I've ever left really,
is to like go to school or work,
and I'd always find myself back.
- Why always back to Detroit?
- It's my home, you know southwest Detroit
has always been a thriving community,
and people have left, it's time to come back.
- We were driving down the street,
and there's a building that's been practically decimated,
and right across the street is a
completely brand new building.
- My whole block is vacant,
there's nothing but opportunity here.
- These are the flowers in the cracks right now.
- Right.
- Next is a broken rice. (Modern Jazz tune)
We have a pork chop.
- We got it sous-viding right now.
And this has been marinating in what?
- Garlic, lemon grass, ginger,
sugar, fish sauce, golden mountain.
- This is a-- - Chinese sausage.
It's like a sweet sausage with a star anise flavor.
- Okay. (Jazzy rap music)
This is our sugar cane shrimp.
(upbeat hip hop music)
Because Vietnamese food is somewhat,
foreign to Michigan, or Detroit's taste buds,
I took a chicken wing, it's like "yeah come in."
You look at this familiar chicken,
but then it's like you taste that fish sauce.
- Slowly ease these guys in,
I feel that's the way, we've got to
make everyone feel comfortable.
- Yeah, you know man, we gotta think back
what truly is the foundation of dining right?
- Yeah - It's like...
- This business is, a business of servitude.
Once you start calling food art,
it becomes pretentious, food is for everyone.
We caramelize palm sugar, finish it with some aromatics.
A red boat fish sauce, some shallots.
(futuristic techno)
(clapping rock music)
- I'm getting all of those flavors, man.
It's big and bold, with all those herbs and spices in it.
Salty, sweet, spicy, herbaceous, savory,
umami, (laughing) - Umami?
- Herb, (laughing) all of that.
We got it all.
- That's the iconic Vietnamese cuisine
sensation while you're eating it, you just said it.
- Your parents came from Jordan straight to Detroit?
- Well my dad did. - Okay.
- And my mom came here when she was around five.
Both my parents came straight to southwest,
and they met in southwest.
- What was your upbringing,
was it always a diverse community or?
- Oh, 100%, southwest Detroit,
growing up i had friends from like the west side come over
and they're like, "man, you got the best neighborhood,
"bro, we don't even have to leave anytime!"
We got the music store, we got the grocery,
we got the corner store, predominantly
it's always been Hispanic, right.
Everyone speaks Spanish to you first, in a way,
and then if not, then you kind of Spanglish it out.
But it's always been diverse, always.
We see one color in southwest for sure.
- But we're in the middle of rubble.
(both laughing)
So once this all comes together, it's gonna be beautiful.
Detroit's in that same state of rebuilding.
- There's definitely a narrative of two Detroits.
I feel that way because I see them both.
There's highly developed areas that keep getting developed.
All of a sudden this facade of this,
it almost feels like out of site out of mind type (beep)
like "what do you mean, there's not two Detroits,
"what are you talking about, we all live in the same city."
there's still people dying, there's still people
not being educated properly because
we have a failing school system and also,
(beep) the Comeback City, if we can't properly educate youth
because once all these young mother(beep) that are here
right now, once they start having kids, guess what?
They're going right back to the burbs.
'cause I can guarantee you, they're not sending
them to Detroit public schools.
At one point I felt personally,
that I'm like man, this (beep) is so bad.
Our Mayor was getting federally indicted!
You know what I mean, for some gangster (beep).
Racketeering, that some gangster (beep) man.
Kwame could of been Governor.
The dude knew how to maneuver in a political arena.
He just got caught up in trying to be a gangster,
and it's like man just be you!
You know what I'm saying? - Yeah, yeah.
- We filed bankruptcy, the only major city to ever do so.
The Comeback City, where's it really at?
You know what I mean, like not discrediting
anything that's going on in the city right now.
'Cause it's definitely changed,
the Comeback City is not comeback yet.
We can! - Yeah.
- But if we don't recognize that,
it will never happen, it will be a failed city again.
Part of the reason why I'm also in my neighborhood,
is because, until we have restaurants,
in neighborhoods, other than that are already developed,
we'll never be one Detroit, it's always be two Detroits.
Right now is gonna set the framework
for the next 10, 20 years.
We hold that power as chef people,
to bridge the gap and make two, one.
- You know what I mean? - Yeah, yeah.
- so, we communicate through the cultures.
Every single culture, recognizes a gesture of hospitality.
I'm just hoping that, other parts of the city,
people start to do the same I guess, you know?
We'll see what happens in the next ten years.
We're not the Comeback City, we're still coming.
(upbeat drumming)
- We're going to Amar Pizza, where these brothers
decided to bring Bangladeshi flavors to Detroit.
(electric strumming)