Anna and Anthony Nguyen
sắp sửa | Denver
july 2022
Anna and Anthony Nguyen have spent their entire lives devoted to food. At 15 years old, Anna was taking baking classes in Boulder, Colorado. She moved from her hometown of Longmont to Fort Collins to study hospitality management at Colorado State University, baking at Little Bird Bakeshop during her free time. After one year, she dropped out of school to work at the bakery full time, finding a mentor in the owner, Amy Corliss. From there, Anna enrolled in the International Culinary Center’s Campbell, California campus, where she met Orange County native Anthony. He has been in the hospitality industry his entire life—he manned the cash register at his mother’s neighborhood Vietnamese restaurant, but was always fascinated by the kitchen. When he finally got a chance to run the pho station, Anthony immediately fell in love with the rush of the back of house energy.
After culinary school, Anthony stayed in the Bay Area and cooked at the traditional Japanese spot Hachi Ju Hachi under his mentor, Jin Suzuki, and Anna went home to the Centennial State, baking at Babettes Bakery in Denver. Together, they moved to Los Angeles in 2015 and worked their way up from line cooks to sous chefs—Anthony at Animal and Anna at Osteria Mozza with Nancy Silverton. In 2019, Anthony joined Anna at Osteria Mozza while they prepared to open and run Silverton’s newest concept, The Barish, as co-executive chefs. But, after a year of hard work, the COVID-19 pandemic made the restaurant impossible to operate.
The couple decided to return to Colorado and develop their own concept: sắp sửa. They got to work right away, developing recipes in Anna’s parents’ kitchen, selling Vietnamese baked goods out of a back alley, and popping up for collab dinners at Sunday Vinyl and Pizzeria Locale. Set to open in early 2023, sắp sửa will serve their spins on traditional Vietnamese dishes, like pork shoulder steak covered in fresh herbs and sweetened condensed milk panna cotta with lychee, longan, and almond granita.
