Guest Chef Night: Chefs Trinh & Thai Nguyen

Trinh and Thai Nguyen are the chefs and owners of Bainbridge Island’s beloved Ba Sa, as well as Ramie, which opened to much fanfare in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood in the spring of 2024.

Born in Vietnam, Trinh and her family spent seven years in a refugee camp in Thailand, where Thai was born, before landing in Seattle in 1989. The Nguyen children grew up in and around Pho T&N, the restaurant their parents founded in Poulsbo in 2005 and ran until 2018 when they retired. The four Nguyen siblings now run Pho T&N.

Trinh is a self-taught chef who spent much of her time cooking alongside her mom and  immersing herself in the Vietnamese culture. Thai is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education in New York. Thai honed his culinary skills under chef Daniel Boulud at two Michelin-starred Restaurant Daniel in New York City.

In September of 2019, the duo opened Ba Sa on Bainbridge Island. The modern Vietnamese restaurant, revered for its use of local products, has become a destination for both locals and visitors.

In the fall of 2023 Trinh spent three months at an intensive French pastry program in Paris.

A dream realized; the sibling chefs opened Ramie in May of 2024. With a focus on Vietnamese cuisine reimaged and elevated, as well as innovative dessert and cocktail programs, Ramie was named one of Seattle Met’s “Best New Restaurants of 2024.”