Chef Rang & Mr.Koo Cooking for love

Every year, Chef Rang embarks on a journey back to his birth country of Vietnam and uses the majority of the savings he has accumulated over the past year to feed, clothe and provide medical and other care to children and folks in need. He stays and helps until he runs out of money.

Master Chef Rang is partnering with Mr. Koo to host multiple fundraising dinners—a true culinary experience—in the hopes of being able to help out more people than ever before in the new year. Help us make this dream come through for Chef Rang and the thousands of Canadians and Vietnamese people he volunteers his time, love and money to help out every year.

On his mission to better the life of Vietnamese children and the Toronto homeless. Chef Rang travels to the most remote parts of Vietnam, from distant islands to tiny villages in the mountains. Nothing can stop him from spreading his love and energy, but you could help make sure it reaches even more people this year.

thankyou for your help in love

@chefrang and @mrkootattoo will be posting videos and images of who they helped through the process. Help us reread our love to our community’s

ABOUT CHEF RANG

Chef Rang is a rising culinary star in Toronto and owner of Ca Phe Rang. You might also know Chef Rang as the co-host of Vice's Dead Set on Life, a culinary travel show from the mind of Toronto’s own Matty Matheson.

Chef Rang grew up in Ca Na, Vietnam, a sleepy fisherman village on the coast of central Vietnam. When he was just 12 years old, his mother passed away from cancer. He remembers his mom as the greatest: she took in homeless people, feeding them, and giving them shelter. She was a great vegetarian chef who was a volunteer cook for the local Buddhist temple.

Shortly after Chef Rang’s mother passed away, he became a homeless boy and lived on the streets before a few local fisherman families took him in. While learning the trade, he was used and abused, jumping from family to family, and given all the tough jobs on the fishing boats in return for food and shelter. In 1979, he and a group of friends decided to steal a small fishing boat along with some food, water, and diesel, trying to escape Vietnam in search of freedom. Uneducated, with no idea where they were going or what their plan was, they set sail straight into the sun onto the great Pacific ocean.

After three days out at sea, they ran out of our supplies. They were lost out on the rough, open, stormy Pacific ocean, and stranded for 15 long days. Finally, they landed at a Malaysian refugee camp on the island of Palau Bi-dong. After two years spent at the refugee camp, a Catholic church from St. John's, Newfoundland offered to sponsor a group of 12 young kids with no families. Chef Rang was among them. He landed in St John's, Newfoundland in the early 80's.

Going from living on the streets and in a refugee camp to living in a large comfortable home was a life-changing experience for Chef Rang. Over the years, he lived in a few foster homes; there were good ones and there were bad ones. Jumping from one to the other, along the way he made a few good friends and received lots of love and help from Newfoundlanders. To this day, Chef Rang still considers St. John's, Newfoundland his home, where friends and family dear to him still reside.

Chef Rang’s first job in St John’s was as a dishwasher at a local seafood restaurant. At that time, the job paid $2.75/hour, but remembering the life he had in Vietnam, Chef Rang thought he was the richest man in the world. While at work one evening, he ate a small piece of poached salmon (Saumon en Papillote) left on a plate by a customer and thought it was the best piece of fish that he had ever had. All the chefs were laughing at him, telling him to stop eating leftovers off of the plates. They started to feed him, and taught him how to cook. From that day on, Chef Rang felt only love and the passion for cooking and set his mind to becoming the best chef there was.

Right out of high school, Chef Rang landed a job as a line cook at a seafood restaurant run by classically trained chefs. As a young fisherman back home, he understood how to work with fresh ingredients and had lots of knowledge about seafood, so he learned quickly as he trained under the chefs at the restaurant. Eventually, he was able to create his own unique twists on dishes by fusing East and West.

At that point, Chef Rang made the decision to leave Newfoundland for Toronto, looking for better jobs and opportunities in the restaurant industry. He has since worked at a few well known local French restaurants in the GTA, including Le Select Bistro where he was head chef for seven years. Eventually, Chef Rang obtained his Red Seal certificate, which allowed him to start training and mentoring young chefs in Toronto. One of them was a young aspiring chef named Matty Matheson, who would eventually become one of North America’s most well known celebrity influencer chefs. Matty and Chef Rang remain good friends to this day.

Now, a caterer, private chef, restaurant owner and consultant, Chef Rang finds joy in mentoring up and coming chefs in Toronto and uplifting the Vietnamese community through food and more in honour of his mother.

ABOUT MR. KOO

Mr. Koo is one of the top tattoo artists in Toronto. He specializes in fine line micro realism tattoos with a geometric touch. He also does script and micro portrait work. Mr. Koo is the one of the owners of Ink and Water tattoo studios, with three locations in the GTA and one location in Brooklyn, NY. Although a tattoo artist, Mr. Koo worked in restaurant kitchens growing up and has always had a passion for cooking. He is the soon-to-be owner of his own restaurant in Toronto and is looking forward to being rediscovered as a creator in the culinary world.

An OCAD graduate, Mr. Koo started his career as an interior designer before moving on to work in the graphic design industry. He worked for several years as the Art Director of IN and TOM magazines before transitioning full time into the tattoo industry. Since becoming a tattoo artist, Mr. Koo has collaborated with multiple brands, events and teams such as Nike, Jameson, the Raptors, the NBA, Real Sports, AXE, Jameson Irish Whiskey, TIFF festival, Sketch Toronto, Peace Collective, Innis and Gunn, Vype, Doc Martens, Endy and many more.

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Mr. Koo grew up in the bustling city of Hong Kong, where he started out as a street artist and his own journey to spread love and joy. Mr. Koo’s aunt, a social worker and professor, raised him. Growing up, she brought him around to homeless shelters and in the streets to help out. This experience stayed with him, and instilled in him to always take the time to talk to and help those in need. That is why he has made sure that Ink and Water does its part to give back to the community. Since opening its first studio in 2016, Ink and Water has partnered with over 30 non-profit organizations from Ronald McDonald house to Sketch Toronto to Second Harvest.

Mr. Koo knows how important and valuable it is to put the time into teaching and helping those in need. That is why, when his friend, Chef Rang, told him about how he travelled to Vietnam each year to help out those in need, Mr. Koo immediately started thinking about ways to help Chef Rang raise money.