Duc Tang
Chef
Duc Tang is a Chinese-American chef and owner of Pacific Rim (a pan-Asian restaurant consistently rated one of Ann Arbor’s best fine dining restaurants) and the executive chef of Peridot (an upscale Vietnamese-influenced bar). Born in Vietnam, Duc lived in Hong Kong and the Philippines as a refugee before immigrating to the U.S.
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Growing up, Duc never thought he’d be a chef. Before Pacific Rim, he studied biochemistry at Yale, did missions work in Mexico, taught high schoolers in inner city L.A., and went to seminary. He taught himself how to cook and has been at Pacific Rim since 2001.
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This interview has been edited for length & clarity. It took place on March 17, 2025.
Credit: Amy Kimball Photography
Q: What was your childhood like?
DT: I was born in Saigon, Vietnam. After the war, my family fled the country by boat and we lived in refugee camps in Hong Kong and the Philippines. I finally immigrated to California when I was 9.
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My parents worked factory jobs and were too busy working to pay attention to our schooling. So we didn’t get much pressure from them but there was some pressure to succeed and excel just by being an immigrant.
Not knowing English in the beginning, math and science were always something I could grasp and was good at. I got into Yale and got a degree in biochemistry with medical school being the end goal. It just seemed to make sense because I was good at math and science. I never stopped to ask whether it was for me.
Q: Tell me about your journey to becoming a chef.
DT: Growing up in an Asian immigrant environment, I never thought I’d be a chef. You were taught to pursue either med school or business school. There was no talk of even being a teacher or nurse. That just wasn’t part of the culture. So I kind of bought into that without questioning it. But in college, I became a Christian, and that changed my outlook a bit. While my nature and skills didn’t change, it changed my priorities to be more altruistic.
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After graduating, I took some time off and did missions work in Mexico for 1.5 years, then went to seminary in Vancouver. Then, I taught high school in inner city L.A. for 1.5 years. before doing some work with the homeless population in New York City. Going to seminary did not mean I wanted to go into ministry, I just wanted a theological education for myself. I ended up meeting my wife in seminary. After graduating seminary, I was like: “Enough dabbling. Let’s get serious about my career. Study for the MCAT.”
But that’s when a friend (Y.B. Ko) called me out of the blue and asked me if I wanted to help him open a restaurant. He was taking over his parents' restaurant in Ann Arbor: a Korean restaurant called Kana. He asked me based on a memory when I hosted big communal meals in seminary. At the time, I lived on a really small budget so I couldn’t afford to eat out. My roommates and I cooked all our food. Once a week, we’d make a big communal dinner and invite our whole wider circle of friends over.
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At the time, my wife and I were also looking for a good place to raise kids and have a family — Ann Arbor seemed like a good fit. I told my friend I’d help him for two years and would go to med school after that. I think a part of me kept putting it off because I knew I wasn’t 100% sold on it.
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But once I started cooking, I was like: “Wow, this is amazing.” It was so different and fun, and I just felt a sense of brightness about it. I loved the physicality of the work, the creativity, and the problem-solving that really satisfied me. Eventually, I gave up the idea of going to medical school. I realized being a chef was more of my calling in part because of the satisfaction I got from the work.
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I realized that beyond the food, the most satisfying part of what I do now is watching people enjoy it and how it brings people together. I love seeing how food is a great vehicle for community and relationship building.
"Beyond food, the most satisfying part of what I do now is watching people enjoy it and how it brings people together. I love seeing how food is a great vehicle for community and relationship building."
Credit: Amy Kimball Photography
Q: How do you see your faith and work intersect?
DT: At first, I struggled to see the value of my work as a chef because part of my desire to be a doctor was to feel like I could make a significant difference in people’s lives. But I came to realize there’s no higher or holier calling. When I first became a Christian in college, I saw the gospel as being black and white. Some things are more spiritual, some things are not. There’s some truth to that, but that can also be a dangerous game because it's not that dichotomous.
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That’s part of what led me to do missions work because I felt like if I were a real Christian, I would value missions work over anything else. But after 1.5 years in Mexico, I left because it wasn’t very satisfying and I was like “this isn’t for me.” In seminary, I came to realize that living out the gospel also includes seeing how God has created you and what he’s doing in the world. It’s not just about converting people, but about redeeming the whole world and bringing goodness to every little corner. That can be a restaurant too.
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The restaurant industry in general can be very demanding and at times degrading. So at Pacific Rim and Peridot, we try to create an environment that’s as uplifting and humanizing as possible: where everyone enjoys and takes ownership of their work. For example, we strongly feel our business is one that nourishes people — not just our guests, but also our staff. Every night before we open, we have a “family meal” that cooks take turns cooking. It’s an old school tradition that fewer restaurants are doing, but we feel it’s the most important part of the night.
We also pool tips so servers and kitchen staff share tips equally. This creates a more equitable environment because there’s a lot of unfairness in the industry that can foster an environment of favoritism. Tip sharing creates a healthier work environment, but a lot of restaurants don’t do it because it requires a bit more work to set up and divide work evenly.
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My parents were fairly successful for immigrants who came to this country with no education or English. Eventually, they worked their way up to own a sewing factory. But growing up, I was stressed watching them because they didn’t know what they were doing, and often got taken advantage of in the business world.
I watched that and thought, “I’ll never be an entrepreneur.” I just wanted the stability of a regular paycheck. Ironically, I’m in the same situation now. But there’s some redemption in knowing I’m able to shape the culture.
"I came to realize that living out the gospel also includes seeing how God created you and what he’s doing in the world. It’s not just about converting people, but about redeeming the whole world and bringing goodness to every little corner."
Credit: Amy Kimball Photography
Q: What's your favorite dish or one that you feel represents you?
DT: Pacific Rim is a Pan-Asian restaurant that incorporates flavors from various Asian cuisines. In that way, it represents my own journey. My family is ethnically Chinese but we lived in Vietnam. So I grew up with both Chinese and Vietnamese food and culture. Having lived in Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Southern California exposed me to so many flavors and ingredients. My wife is Korean American, so I wanted to appreciate Korean food from her family too.
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So every dish has a story. At Pacific Rim, the spring rolls on the menu are my mom’s recipe. Growing up, she made these great Vietnamese spring rolls so it’s something I kept on the menu unaltered.
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On Peridot’s menu, there’s ketchup fried rice which is an homage to my dad. He wasn’t a cook at all. But occasionally when my mom was working, he’d cook us fried rice. For whatever reason, he’d always put ketchup in it. As kids, we got used to it. So I put that on the menu and it became pretty popular.
Q: How did your parents react to you becoming a chef?
DT: After high school, I wanted to be as far away from home as possible. That’s part of why I went to the east coast from Southern California. Because I was far away from home for so long, my parents kind of lost touch with the many things I was dabbling in, and it didn’t hit them as a surprise that I was doing something different.
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But when I told my mom, her initial reaction still was: “I sent you to Yale so you can work in a kitchen?” Her concept of working in a restaurant was based on my uncle, who had worked as a cook — very low, menial work, something you do when you don’t have other options or skills. But after seeing how satisfied and happy I was, she eventually came to accept it.
Q: What does success mean to you?
DT: Definitely not the bottom line. You need to be profitable to be sustainable, but success to me is getting through a shift where the people are just thriving: my staff are working well and my guests leave with a positive memory — not just with the food, but of enjoying each other’s company. That typically lines up with financial success too. Since the beginning, we’ve had a rule to spend no money on advertising. So it’s all been word of mouth and we only succeed if the word of mouth is positive.
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What drives us is not service but hospitality. Service is about being attentive to all the details of what someone needs and getting it done. Hospitality is more of a posture of making people feel welcome. That’s a bit harder to achieve.
"What drives us is not service but hospitality. Service is about being attentive to all the details of what someone needs and getting it done. Hospitality is more of a posture of making people feel welcome. That’s a bit harder to achieve."
Pacific Rim's wood interior that Duc Tang designed and built
Credit: Amy Kimball Photography
Q: In your free time, what do you like to do to recharge?
DT: My wife and I had 5 kids in an 8-year span and we raised them in Ann Arbor. So when the kids were younger, a lot of my time was spent helping my wife, Janet, who homeschooled our kids. It helped that as a chef, working evenings meant I could spend mornings with my family. I’ve always been active in sports so I play tennis with my kids a lot.
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I also enjoy woodworking and building furniture. It’s similar to cooking given the physical, creative, and problem-solving nature of it. At Pacific Rim, I designed and built most of the interior. I think being in Ann Arbor makes my job more manageable. If I were a chef in NYC, I don’t think I’d be able to have that balance — I’d be coming home at 2AM.
Q: What's your advice for aspiring chefs?
DT: It sounds cliche, but explore what you enjoy. Sometimes you just don’t know until you try. Don’t be afraid to fail because the fear of failure will stop you from trying things that might end up benefiting you. So just have an open mind. I believe you eventually figure out what you’re good at and what you enjoy.