French-Vietnamese food is a colonial-era fusion combining French techniques and ingredients—like baguettes, pâté, butter, and coffee—with traditional Vietnamese flavors, herbs, and spices. This culinary blend features iconic dishes such as bánh mì sandwiches, bò lúc lắc (shaking beef), bò kho (beef stew), and bánh flan.
French-influenced dishes are numerous and not limited to: sa lát (salad), pâté, patê sô (a Brittany pasty called "pâté chaud"), bánh sừng trâu/bánh sừng bò (croissant), bánh flan, ya ua (yogurt), rôti (rotisserie), bơ (butter), vịt nấu cam (duck à l'orange), ốp lết (omelette), ốp la (œufs au plat), phá xí (farcies), ...
Though it would be unfair to say that French cuisine dominates Vietnam food, it's an influence that exceeds others. In Vietnamese cooking, alongside French styles, you also have Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and other ethnic influences.
Two centuries later, France began the colonization of Vietnam, and for six decades, ruled over the Southeast Asian country. During this time, French influence spread across Vietnamese cuisine, architecture, culture, and art – an influence which continues to live on across the country today.
One prevailing theory behind the name "pho" is that it originated from the French dish "pot-au-feu," a traditional beef stew. As Vietnam was under French colonial rule during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it's believed that the Vietnamese adapted the French dish, resulting in what we now know as pho.
That's because “feu” sounds very similar to the famous Vietnamese noodle soup, pho (pronounced “f-uh”). And indeed, there is a link: there's a theory that pot-au-feu, a traditional soup cooked by Vietnam's colonial occupiers, was the inspiration for pho.
It was only after the country gained independence from France that the new Modern form of the language, with its Chinese and French influences building on a linguistic history of several thousand years, was finally recognised as the official language of Vietnam.
From the late 1800's to 1954, Vietnam was part of a French colony called French Indochina. When the French first became interested in Indochina French missionaries sought to convert the Vietnamese to Catholicism, the religion of France.
The roots of the banh mi date back to the mid-19th century during French colonial rule in Vietnam. The French introduced the baguette, or petit pains, a crusty bread that would become the foundation for what we now recognize as the banh mi.
The French people, especially the native speakers of langues d'oïl from northern and central France, are primarily descended from Romans (or Gallo-Romans, western European Celtic and Italic peoples), Gauls (including the Belgae), as well as Germanic peoples such as the Franks, the Visigoths, the Suebi and the ...
France obtained control over northern Vietnam following its victory over China in the Sino-French War (1884–85). French Indochina was formed on 17 October 1887 from Annam, Tonkin, Cochinchina (which together form modern Vietnam) and the Kingdom of Cambodia; Laos was added after the Franco-Siamese crisis of 1893.
Vietnamese street food emphasizes fresh ingredients like herbs, vegetables, and lean proteins. It's naturally light, low in unhealthy fats, and nutrient-dense, making it a healthier choice than many other fast-food options.
The French introduced Vietnam to the baguette, along with other baked goods such as pâté chaud, in the 1860s, at the start of their imperialism in Vietnam. Many sources characterize bánh mì primarily as a French bread tradition adapted in Vietnam, with local fillings added atop the colonial-era baguette base.
One of the most popular manifestations of this trend is the Viet-Cajun seafood boil, which typically sees a mix of seafood—like shrimp, crab, crawfish and mussels—cooked in a flavorful broth seasoned with both Vietnamese and Cajun spices and served with classic Vietnamese accompaniments, such as fresh herbs, lime ...
Rather than the gentle, repetitive folding technique that produces the tender texture of Parisian-style baguettes, Vietnamese bakers develop their gluten by vigorously whipping the dough with a machine mixer for a short amount of time, then rapidly slapping the loaves into shape before a long proof, Nguyen says.
As France colonized Vietnam for a period of about 60 years, French remains one of the most common foreign languages in Vietnam. Russian, Czech, Polish and German are also spoken by small parts of the Vietnamese population.
In 1884, all of Vietnam fell under French rule; in 1887, it was fully integrated into French Indochina. France developed a Western system of education throughout its colonies, propagated Roman Catholicism, and developed a plantation economy to promote the export of tobacco, indigo, tea, and coffee.
On May 7, 1954, the French-held garrison at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam fell after a four month siege led by Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh. After the fall of Dien Bien Phu, the French pulled out of the region.
The 45-day visa exemption for French citizens and many other European countries, along with the increasingly convenient direct flight network between Paris and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, has made Vietnam an attractive choice for French vacationers seeking to explore Asia.
Vietnamese has been so heavily influenced by Chinese that its original Austroasiatic phonological quality is obscured and now resembles that of South Chinese languages, whereas Khmer, which had more influence from Sanskrit, has retained a more typically Austroasiatic structure.
