What’s for Lunch? Pastry chef Diane Moua on Hmong sausage and her new restaurant

NINA MOINI: It's noon. Maybe you're thinking about eating lunch right now. And here in the studio at least, food is always on our minds. So we're continuing our series called, What's for Lunch? where we ask acclaimed chefs around the state what they're cooking and eating for some inspiration.

Diane Moua is a five-time James Beard Award nominee for her work as a pastry chef at restaurants like Spoon and Stable and La Belle Vie in the Twin Cities. But now Diane is about to open a brand new restaurant of her own featuring Hmong-French cuisine in Northeast Minneapolis. She's calling it Diane's Place. And she's here now to chat.

Diane, welcome.

DIANE MOUA: Hi. Thank you for having me.

NINA MOINI: So nice to be with you. Let's talk about food. Tell me about the food that you most like to prepare and that you most like to eat.

DIANE MOUA: Gosh, I love just simple home-cooked food. I mean, my freezer is full of-- I've been working a lot on my restaurant.

NINA MOINI: Sure.

DIANE MOUA: So my parents would come up, and I have a freezer full of meat from the farm. And that to me is really good food. Whether it's just a chicken boiled with some Hmong herbs or pork just cooked up with some bitter melon, it's just simple cooked food.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And you mentioned farming. I understand that had a really big influence on your younger years and your life. Tell me about your new place-- congratulations-- and how your past inspires your new restaurant.

DIANE MOUA: I'm just trying to think back of what makes me complete and what makes me happy. And it's growing up. And when your parents cook for you and you're having a warm meal and it warms your soul.

And so doing the restaurant, it's taking both worlds of-- I've been in the industry for 20 years now-- and taking what I grew up with and taking what I've learned in this industry and mashing the two together.

I'm going to have pastries, along with we're going to have full-service food, drinks. That's the whole package right there for me.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And why did you decide to name it Diane's Place?

DIANE MOUA: So I decided to call it Diane's Place because I've been thinking about names and I wanted to do some-- I want to honor my parents. And then, just thinking back. And Diane's Place-- Diane was the name that, when my parents came to the US, the sponsor gave my name.

And so my parents always said, however long I've been in the US, that's how long-- however long I've been in the US, they've been in the US, that's how old I am. And Diane's Place was the first American name. So it was just a lot of stuff. And the name Diane, it's so much history there for my family of my parents coming to the States.

And so just thinking back, I tried to mash up names, doing so much. But at the end of the day, Diane's Place is home not just for me, but for my family.

NINA MOINI: That's beautiful. And so much of food is a mashing up of different cultures and different experiences. And I understand that you're going to have a lot of dishes from your own Hmong heritage. And vegetables grown in your family's farm?

DIANE MOUA: Oh, my God. My parents, they have four greenhouses right now. And they're just so hyped on, what should we grow for you? Tell us. Let us know. And I'm like, lots of lemongrass, lots of peppers. Just letting them know what I want.

And I have this vision of having this beautiful lemongrass plant in the building. And my dad's like, we're ready. You just tell us how you want it. We'll make it happen for you.

So it's really exciting to have my parents be a part of this, too. And of course, all my siblings are really excited, too. Everyone's like, OK, what's the date so we can mark it off? We all want to be there.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And so what is the date? No, I'm just kidding.

I understand you're calling from the kitchen of your new space over there in Northeast. So what's going on over there right now? A lot of hustle and bustle? Do you have everyone from the family helping out? Are you putting them to work?

DIANE MOUA: No, not yet. This coming week, we have some equipment coming in. I had to call my dad and my brother. They're going to come. My brother is helping us paint. He's a professional painter. So I'm putting him to work. And he has been offering to help.

But my kids-- I mean, my kids are big, and they've been in the place, helping take stickers off things, sweeping, mopping. They've been amazing. So it's like all I am was I'm sitting at my computer, setting up interviews. So I'm quite busy. So it's really nice to have family to help with the things that I can't get to.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, restaurants are notoriously a family business.

DIANE MOUA: Oh, yes.

NINA MOINI: Is there a favorite dish that you have or one that you want to describe for us?

DIANE MOUA: It's so crazy. I'm trying to think of what I've been eating so much. And we've been testing out the Hmong sausage. So Lowry Hill Provisions, who is in the building with us-- we've been testing Hmong sausage since September.

NINA MOINI: Wow.

DIANE MOUA: And so every week, we're eating it, tasting it, how we can make it different, the coarse, the grind of the meat. How do we add sour to it? So we've been having lots of Hmong sausage. We've been eating it for breakfast, rice and just an over-easy egg on it. And that's been a really comfort.

At first, I'm like, God, we're going to be tired of eating this. But we haven't. We still eat it. And when we're really busy, me and my general manager, we're eating instant noodles. I mean, you have to have instant noodle.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. So actually, one of my questions here, since the segment is called What's for Lunch? what are you doing today, sausage or noodles?

DIANE MOUA: Today? Today was sausage and eggs.

NINA MOINI: OK. You're really perfecting that dish. I love it. Any other dishes that maybe have more of the French or more of the Hmong influence? How do you go about mashing those up?

DIANE MOUA: That's going to be shown more in the pastries, too. All the croissants-- I'm trying to take one of my dad's dish and incorporate it into a danish. And how do you turn it into-- maybe it's a fancy Hot Pocket-- I don't know. But just taking a lamination and making beautiful pastries and adding a little Hmong flare of flavors in there, inspired-- our traditional inspired dishes, how do you incorporate the two?

So that's been the-- it's easy to have it side by side, but how do you put it together and make something really great out of it? And so that's what I've been working on.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And of all the places that you've worked and been a part of, does it feel different to have this be your own place, and literally Diane's Place?

DIANE MOUA: Yeah, it feels good. It feels good. We've been busy. And I'm really excited. We're counting the days. Like, OK is this really happening? The place is filled right now. And we've been very fortunate because it's an event space I'm running in here, too.

So we have speed racks and ovens, and everything is here just waiting for construction to be done to put it in place. But yeah, it's good to have your own place. I can't wait to be in the kitchen again. I really miss being in the kitchen.

So I already have a game plan. Like, OK, the first thing we're going to do is we're going to test out this dough, test out this, test out this dish.

NINA MOINI: And remind me again, when are you going to open? Just remind me again.

DIANE MOUA: We're looking at-- we don't have a date yet. We're looking at March, and we'll announce it the minute we do.

NINA MOINI: OK. And where people can find you is in Northeast.

DIANE MOUA: Yes. Northeast, in the Food Building.

NINA MOINI: All right. Thank you so much. Twin Cities pastry chef Diane Moua. Look for her Hmong-French restaurant Diane's Place, coming to Northeast Minneapolis soon. Good luck with everything, Diane.

DIANE MOUA: Thank you so much.