For Nguyen, the transition from fine dining to a bakery gave him room to loosen up a bit. 'I'm a pretty goofy guy,' he says. (The name Berlu comes from the French expression 'hurluberlu,' meaning 'an eccentric person.'). 'The tasting menu is more formal, more serious. The bakery is an outlet I've found. There's lots of fulfillment, being able to express a side of my personality that I don't really express in the tasting menu.'
Originally opened in 2019, Berlu was known for its elaborate tasting menu that flexed skills Nguyen gathered from his tenure at acclaimed restaurants like Noma and Castagna. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the restaurant flipped into a pop-up bakery and market operation, where Nguyen's gluten- and dairy-free Vietnamese pastries and noodle soups quickly gained a cult-like social media following.
Nguyen's connection to his Vietnamese heritage - and his gluten- and dairy-free diet - contributed to a shift in Berlu's tasting menu when it reopened in late 2021. Nguyen reinvented Berlu's high-concept fine dining with a more personal perspective, taking inspiration from the flavors he worked with at the bakery.
In 2023, he won Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific at the James Beard Awards. At the end of 2023, Nguyen pivoted again, closing Berlu as a tasting menu restaurant and reviving Berlu Bakery.
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