There are cities where history is framed behind glass. And then there is Hue, where the past still simmers quietly on the stove.

At Azerai La Residence, Hue, that history isn’t reenacted for tourists. It’s translated — into broth, into spice, into dishes that feel ceremonial without being precious.

On a recent evening at Le Parfum, the hotel’s all-day dining restaurant, the menu read less like a list of courses and more like a conversation between dynasties, decades, and disciplines. This is no accident. It is the work of Executive Chef Nguyen Dong Hai, one of Vietnam’s most respected culinary figures — and someone who has quietly spent two decades refining what it means to cook Hue.

Cooking With Memory, Not Nostalgia

Hue’s food has always carried weight. As the former imperial capital of Vietnam, its cuisine was designed to communicate hierarchy, harmony, and restraint. Chef Hai doesn’t modernize that legacy so much as listen to it.

New dishes recently added to the menu reflect this philosophy. A Hue Royal-Style Braised Duck Leg arrives deeply aromatic, its meat slow-cooked in Minh Mang wine with goji berries, star anise, mushrooms and ginseng, served alongside mung bean sticky rice. It’s rich, but controlled — indulgent without excess.

A Five-Spice Roasted Chicken with Turmeric Rice draws from local spice traditions, using honey and regional aromatics to glaze free-range poultry, paired with shiitake mushrooms and sautéed bok choy. Even the familiar feels intentional.

Then there’s a clay pot dish of caramelized pork and prawn — humble at first glance, deeply satisfying in execution — reminding diners that Hue’s royal cuisine has always existed alongside everyday comfort food.

When Global Technique Meets Local Authority

Chef Hai doesn’t limit himself to Vietnamese tradition. A thyme semi-smoked Japanese Wagyu A5 striploin, served with pear potato, organic vegetables and yakiniku sauce, speaks to his technical range. So does a delicately steamed yellowtail kingfish with black bean soy, glass noodles and seasonal vegetables.

Yet nothing feels imported for the sake of luxury. These dishes coexist naturally with Hue classics, bound together by discipline and balance rather than trend.

It’s a sensibility that has earned Chef Hai rare recognition. Last year, he was named a Master Culinary Artist of Vietnam, and more recently, a finalist at the Gourmet Vietnam Awards presented by Epicure magazine — accolades that acknowledge not just skill, but stewardship.

A Dining Room With a Memory of Its Own

Chef Hai joined La Residence in 2005, long before it became one of Vietnam’s most celebrated heritage hotels. Over the years, he has shaped some of its most iconic experiences, including “The Colonial Life,” a signature dining concept that blends Nguyen Dynasty imperial cuisine with refined French gastronomy in a riverside setting that feels suspended in time.

In 2017, he was entrusted with designing the “Majestic Menu” for the state visit of Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, hosted by then–Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc. That menu — an elegant fusion of Hue’s imperial foodways and global flavors — remains one of the hotel’s most requested dining experiences today.

Even Anthony Bourdain took note. During his stay in 2014, he praised Chef Hai’s cooking, particularly a reimagined banh mi that has since become known as the La Residence Banh Mi — a quiet reminder that reverence and reinvention can share the same plate.

A Hotel That Knows Who It Is

La Residence itself is part of the story. Centered around a colonial mansion built in 1930 for the French Resident Supérieur, the hotel’s art deco façade — with its long horizontal lines and nautical flourishes — reflects the streamline moderne movement of the era. The building doesn’t dominate the Perfume River so much as observe it.

With 122 rooms and suites, the hotel manages to feel intimate, a place where mornings drift slowly and evenings invite conversation. It was recently named one of Vietnam’s top 16 hotels for 2025 by The Times of London — recognition that feels less like a surprise than a confirmation.

The property is part of the Azerai portfolio created by legendary hotelier Adrian Zecha, whose approach has always favored context over spectacle.

Why This Matters Now

In an era when “local cuisine” is often reduced to marketing language, Azerai La Residence, Hue offers something rarer: continuity. Food here is not frozen in time, nor aggressively reinterpreted. It evolves — slowly, deliberately, and with respect.

Chef Hai isn’t chasing trends. He’s preserving a culinary language by speaking it fluently, every day, in a dining room that understands where it stands.

In Hue, history doesn’t sit quietly.

It eats well.