ABOUT
For 8 years, Chef Tony Nguyen was the Executive Chef for both Crustacean Restaurant and the highly anticipated Da Lat Rose in Beverly Hills.
Crustacean is the Beverly Hills destination of Hollywood power players and stars, Crustacean is an upscale Modern Asian restaurant known for both its innovative yet refined Cuisine. Da Lat Rose was Chef Nguyen's latest project partnering with House of An, supported by his mentor Chef Helene An.
Tony was born to cook. To this day he says the cuisine of his Vietnamese-born mother is the best he has ever tasted and owes all of his success to his family.
Encouraged to pursue gastronomy, Tony aced the entrance exam for the Culinary Institute of America. Chef graduated as one of the top of his class from the nation’s top cooking school and staged in a list of restaurants that reads like gastronomic top 20.
During his school years, he interned with some of the world’s masters of cuisine and in some of the most renowned restaurants. Mentors he has worked alongside of include Edward Leonard, one of only 62 Certified Master Chefs; and Lou Rook of Annie Gunns at the James Beard House in New York City. Tony also apprenticed under a seasoned itamae(sushi chef) at the Ritz-Carlton in St. Louis
Tony’s promise and passion soon became known in chef circles. After CIA, he continued his education with the Ivy League Cornell's online restaurant and hotel management program. After school he was hired in a Management in Training program at Pinnacle Entertainment. This position shuttled him between 15 restaurants in one year, during which he absorbed myriad recipes, techniques and ideas from experienced chefs all over the United States. His stints included the steakhouse Snake River Grill in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, under chef Justin Sells; the Italian standard-bearer House of Savoy, in St. Louis; and Kim Son, in Houston, where chef Tri La enhanced Tony’s understanding of Asian aromatics, herbs and spices. Tony also
spent time with Rick Moonen, the “King of Seafood,” whose sustainable practices have brought acclaim to RM Seafood inside Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Other notable stages are at L'atlier de Joel Robuchon at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and a short stint at James Beard award winning restaurant Bluestem in Kansas City where he spent time with Chefs Joe West and Colby Garrelts.
In 2014, soon after he moved to Orange County California to take the role with House of An restaurant group as Corporate Executive Chef, stationed mainly at Anqi in the global destination South Coast Plaza where he was named Top 10 Chefs to look out for by Modern Luxury Orange County.
Throughout this intense education and hands-on experience, Tony was methodically developing his own signature cuisine, which he calls “modern, inspired, and tailored.” Though this often involves the inventive, unexpected and dramatic presentations we associate with “molecular” gastronomy, Tony is no one-trick pony. “I am inspired by traveling, music and what I see during the day and by all the chefs I work with,” he says, “but the one constant is there is always an Asian influence.”
Chef has been featured on Food Network, Bravo, Food and Wine Magazine, LA Times, EATER, Forbes, Robb Report, LA WEEKLY, and recently named Best Asian Restaurant in Los Angeles by USA TODAY.
