From a lockdown epiphany to a new Deansgate opening, Doux Chaton is a celebration of Vietnamese food, family legacy and the mother whose recipes hold it all together. Adam Maidment reports.
The expansive menu stems across Banh Mi sandwiches, fried chicken wings, summer rolls and noodle soups(Image: Manchester Evening News)
A little over ten years ago, Jimmy Ly was studying business in Manchester when he stopped revising and put on an episode of The Big Bang Theory on TV as a bit of a comfort watch. The episode featured lead character Sheldon being comforted by a ‘soft kitty, warm kitty’ lullaby – which has become a familiar moment for fans of the show – and it sparked a brainwave for him: Warm kitty could be the name for a cosy and cute new street food spot. Turned into French, it sounded even better.
Jimmy, alongside sister Jennifer, eventually opened Doux Chaton in Liverpool’s Renshaw Street in 2022. The Vietnamese restaurant, featuring an expansive menu of noodle soups, sandwiches, pancakes and summer rolls, was described as not only being a love letter to their mother Linda and her closely-guarded recipes, but also in recognising their Chinese-Vietnamese upbringing.
Linda and husband Ko moved to the UK from Vietnam in the 1980s with no qualifications to their name. Linda can speak four different languages and has three different names depending on the people, location or time of the year (she is mostly known as Auntie to both her family and colleagues). Over 39 years, the two have been behind numerous restaurants and takeaways across Liverpool and Widnes.
Whilst Jimmy always had the name in mind for the eventual restaurant, he said the idea for Doux Chaton – which has just opened a second spot in Deansgate – came about during the pandemic when he started to make the personal realisation that his parents and their long-heralded recipes might not always be around in his life. Living in London at the time, it encouraged him to learn to cook, which then in turn led to the opening of the family-run venue.
“I remember coming back home during the lockdown,” Jimmy recalls to the M.E.N. “I actually had Covid and I had locked myself away from everybody. It just made me reflect on a lot of things and reminded me how important family are. I basically wanted a way to be able to see my parents everyday, I felt a bit disconnected from them at that time. I also wanted to really honour my parents because they have sacrificed a lot in their life for their kids.”
Jimmy and Jennifer say that the food they were preparing at their parent’s former takeaways was also ‘disconnected’ from the dishes the family would eat at home as they catered to what general customers were wanting to order. But with an expanding palette came the opportunity to go all in on what their mother excelled at.
The restaurant is described as being a ‘love letter’ to the dishes they grew up making and enjoying(Image: Manchester Evening News)
“A lot of our mum’s recipes have been handed down to her from our grandparents,” Jennifer adds. “They are no longer with us and I just felt like this could be our way of keeping them with us everyday, whilst also learning more about ourselves and where we come from.
“Every single thing we do means something to us. The Banh Xeo pancake, for example, is something my grandmother spent years and years trying to perfect. Every year she would bang out a version that wasn’t perfect, it was soggy instead of crispy. I have memories of us all sitting around the dinner table politely encouraging her. The pork also takes us back to the barbecues we’d have together as a family. Now, it’s our way of carrying that on.”
The Banh Mi sandwiches feature bread freshly made by Doux Chaton’s bakery(Image: Manchester Evening News)
“You know, with Asian parents, they won’t always say ‘I love you’,” Jimmy says. “They instead just give you a plate of fresh fruit or make some food for you. That’s our mum’s love language.”
The French side of Doux Chaton comes from its separate in-house Catkip Coffeehouse, fronted by chef Michael Longdin, serving the likes of sausage rolls, cakes and other treats – all freshly made – as well as their own blend of artisan Robusta coffee from Liverpool’s Neighbourhood Coffee Roasters. One particular highlight is the over-indulgent black sesame and blackberry croissant, featuring a light creme pat and designed like a bee to represent Manchester. It has become so popular it often sells out before lunchtime.
Linda Ly first learning how to cook whilst working her parent’s food stalls in Vietnam at the age of ten(Image: Liverpool Echo)
But Doux Chaton was far from an immediate success. “It was very quiet at the beginning,” head honcho Linda says. “We had no bookings, no tables full. For the first few weeks of opening, I worked 17 hours every day. Everyone went to bed and I was still up late at night cooking meat and getting ready for the next day. I had to sell all my jewellery to pay for things, I always had to make up excuses for why we could not go out for meals. We thought we would end up selling it but my children said no. Then, after a few months we started to get more customers in.”
Whilst some of Linda’s recipes have been carried over from working her parents’ food stalls in Hanoi’s famous Ta Hien Street from the age of ten, she admits a lot of them have been borne out of trial-and-error. “I just learnt myself,” she says. “I would just keep making things until they were right. I’m not someone who gives up easily. Still today, people are teaching me new things.
The restaurant serves a range of noodle Pho and Bun soups featuring the likes of beef, pork, chicken or tofu, priced between £14.50 and £16.90(Image: Manchester Evening News)
“But, at the end of the day, I do my own recipe and I always know when someone has changed the recipe or done something differently. They are always surprised that I know, but I can always tell.”
In December, the family opened their first spot in Manchester in Deansgate after 18 months in the works. In the former Municipal Bar unit, it is bigger than their original Liverpool spot and carries on their reputation for good food and good vibes with additional menu items. Asked for her recommendations, Linda says the Pho Bo – a noodle soup made with 24hr beef bone broth and braised beef shank – and the Bun Thit Heo Nu’ong pork belly noodle salad are both very good places to start. Save room for her famous crispy fried chicken wings too.
The black sesame and blackberry croissant is already a big hit(Image: Manchester Evening News)
“We wanted to show we could have two restaurants side-by-side and scale it in a way that is sustainable whilst still authentic,” Jimmy says. He will lead the Manchester side of things, whilst Jennifer will primarily focus on the Liverpool venue. “We always want to learn new things,” he says. “Our mum would never give us an A* at anything – it was always a B or B-. There was always room to improve or to learn more. We’ve always been brought up on doing our best at everything we do.”
Both Jennifer and Jimmy say that whilst they are also learning so much about food through Doux Chaton, they are also learning a lot about their own identities. “We were mostly brought up as Chinese,” Jennifer says. “I didn’t actually realise I was also Vietnamese until I was about eight.
Jimmy, Linda (Nguyet), Ko and Jennifer Ly at their original Doux Chaton restaurant in Liverpool(Image: Liverpool Echo)
“My mum never spoke the language, and it’s just something I’ve really felt like I wanted to connect with through what we’re doing here. It’s a chance to represent that side of us that we didn’t know about for a while.” Jimmy adds: “And we also want to honour the many Vietnamese businesses in Manchester. They have helped pave the way for people to connect to our culture. We hope we can add to that.”
For Linda, she says she wants to retire soon. Whilst there’s a sense that she might never truly be able to step away from cooking or from the business, she says she’s insistent on letting her children carry on without her soon. “I’m 65 now,” she says. “I’m tired! I can’t work forever, and I’ve been working hard enough throughout my life.”
But until such a time comes, Linda will be keeping a watchful eye over not only her children but to also ensure that every dish that leaves the Doux Chaton kitchen goes out to her exact standard.
Doux Chaton is on 265-267 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 4EW.