How Vollrath Helps Chef Yia Vang Tell Stories Through Food
Chef Yia Vang tells stories of his heritage through food, and Vollrath’s breadth of line inspires imagination as he recreates his favorite Hmong dishes at Minneapolis’ Vinai restaurant.
Chef Yia Vang’s inspiration for bringing Southeast Asian flavor to Minneapolis, Minnesota, began long before and far from the small Midwestern town where he grew up.
“I’m a simple kid from central Wisconsin,” Yia said of his hometown of 2,000 people. “When I left the small town 20-some years ago, I never thought I’d get here.”
Yia is executive chef and owner of Vinai in Minneapolis. Among this bright, warm, and welcoming restaurant’s long list of accolades is being named a James Beard 2025 semifinalist for Best New Restaurant, TIME magazine’s 2025 list of World’s Greatest Places, and Eater’s 2024 Best New Restaurants in America.
Virtuous Roots
Pronounced VEE-nye, the restaurant is named after a beacon of hope, a place of cultural and historical significance in Thailand.
“Ban Vinai was a refugee camp that was set up for refugees from northern Laos [and] Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. So, a lot of the Hmong people who are part of that war, who fought in that war, like my father, needed to escape after the U.S. pulled out in ’75,” Yia said of his birthplace, named Vinai because of the word virtue, translated to dignity or honor. “They wanted to bring dignity back to the people, to the refugees. They wanted to give them their humanity back.”
Hmong food draws on the flavors of the Southeast Asian countries where the nomadic Hmong people traveled. Vinai’s menu features modern interpretations of the Hmong family dishes Yia grew up eating, including shared main dishes, bright veggie sides and bold sauces.
Vinai’s chef de cuisine Timmy Truong grew up in the industry, lending a hand at his family’s small Vietnamese restaurant, Jasmine Deli, in Minneapolis before training at Le Cordon Bleu and pursuing independent ventures. Before joining Vinai’s opening team in 2024, Timmy had seen Yia on YouTube and television. “He made Hmong, for me, being Hmong cool.”
Yia and Timmy share a connection rooted in their heritage. “We cook from who we are. So, a lot of childhood stuff growing up, we would talk about it,” Yia said. “He’s half Hmong, half Vietnamese. I’m Hmong. And so sometimes we have flavors that cross each other, and we’re like, ‘Hey, have you had it this way?’
“We’re also fans of the restaurant industry around our community, and so we get to talk about that.” Yia said. “So those are the ways that we kind of collab and come up with ideas for our menu. What makes us special? We’re actually about building community, and good food happens to be the byproduct of it.”
Game-Changing Efficiency
As Vinai grew alongside Yia’s nationally acclaimed Hmong Union Kitchen, another community staple that began as a popup, they didn’t always have the luxury of space. (According to Yia, when he started his business “it was literally out of the bed of my 2001 RAV4 with over 300,000 miles.”)
"We had a small imagination. With the induction power of Vollrath, it made our imagination limitless.”
Chef Yia Vang
Partnering with Vollrath helped Vinai optimize its available workspace with versatile, efficient equipment. Induction cooking opened a world of possibilities thanks to its incredibly fast heating that traditionally had only been found with gas cooking methods.
“When I was introduced to the power of induction from Vollrath, it was a game-changer for us,” Yia said, contrasting a countertop induction range’s small footprint with its ability to cook gallons of broth and oodles of noodles. He said it changed the way they thought of what was possible.
“My introduction to induction by Vollrath was the induction wok,” Timmy said. “I feel like I got the Rolls-Royce right off the top.”
Induction cooking methods are incredibly fast, efficient and precise. Ideal for commercial kitchens, it reduces energy waste and cuts costs while ensuring faster, more consistent results.
“What I love about the power of induction is that it heats up quick. Every second counts. And so, with that power, in a matter of minutes, you’re getting food right out there,” Yia said. “It acts just like if you were with gas, but you’re doing this with electric, and that’s what’s incredible. We had a small imagination. With the induction power of Vollrath, it made our imagination limitless.”
An Extra Hand
Included among Vollrath’s induction line are time-saving rethermalizers, celebrated for how quickly and safely they take prepared food from chilled to hot, then keep it consistently hot using a powerful direct-contact heating system.
“What I love about the rethermalizer is you get an extra chef in the kitchen, and we know that it’s going to stay stabilized at a certain temperature. So that consistency in the rethermalizer is incredible,” Yia said.
Rethermalizers deliver quality, durability, and energy efficiency in one time- and space-saving unit. Every component is designed and manufactured in the USA with the quality and reliability Vollrath is known for.
“The fact that the rethermalizer can bring something from a cold, even solid, state to a boil by just turning it on — absolute game-changer. It saved our restaurant,” Timmy said.
Durability That Meets Demand
Vinai’s bold and memorable dining experience brings people together to share stories and amazing food, often braised or cooked over an open fire, requiring well-crafted, durable cookware that can handle the heat.
“I’ve worked with other pots and pans, other product, and literally six months in they started warping,” Yia said. “What I love about the Centurion and the Tribute is it’s heavier. I know that it’s going to be able to take a beating.”
Yia said that if asked to pick a favorite piece of Vollrath equipment, it’s his brazier. Perfect for long, slow cooking, this durable performer’s wide design is ideal for cooking meats and vegetables in small amounts of liquid. “It does everything you need, and it also can take a beating. Man, this pot is just incredible. I’ve even thrown it over live fire and cooked with that.”
Besides his preference for induction cooking and the Centurion and Tribute product lines, Yia relies on other Vollrath tools of the trade to streamline his workflow. From mixers engineered for reliable performance, to slicers that cut whole fruits and vegetables in one stroke, Vollrath products are an indispensable part of preparing the meals Minneapolis loves.
When Yia says fortitude, integrity, and legacy come to mind when describing Vollrath, one can’t help but think of Vinai and his family’s story.
“When I think of fortitude, I think of this idea that it’s a foot planted on the ground, like immovable. Integrity — we’re going to do this right, even if we have to reinvent things, even if we have to go back and say we were wrong, you know, doing the right thing when no one’s looking. And legacy, I mean, over 150 years, this is legacy.”
Vinai’s Legacy
In addition to serving as an homage to Yia’s parents and his Hmong culture and history, Vinai is a place of restoration, where guests are invited to celebrate their own stories through the universal language of food.
“We had some blowback when we named this place Vinai. We had a couple people, Hmong people, who wrote in and said, why would you want to name this place Vinai? Vinai was a place of horrific tragedy. It’s a dark moment in our people’s history. Why would anybody ever want to do that?” Yia said.
“And my mom said, ‘I want you to know, when I was a girl and we were in Vinai,’” Yia said, adding his mother’s family spent more than 10 years at Ban Vania, “‘so when we were in Vinai, part of my family was killed.’ She said, ‘Eventually, you know, I met your father, we got married and we had you guys, and we came to America, and I never wanted to speak of that name ever again.’”
But light burns brightest when coming out of a dark place. “She said, ‘When I hear this name Vinai, I no longer think of death and tragedy. I think of hope and joy,’” Yia said, the emotion clearly showing on his face.
Vollrath is honored to partner with Chef Yia Vang as he builds relationships in his community over shared stories and unforgettable food.