For more than three decades, my work has been fortunate to receive recognition from newspapers, magazines, television, and culinary organizations in both the United States and Vietnam. Below are a few milestones that represent different chapters of that journey.
Broken Dreams Returns to Oakland
San Francisco Chronicle • July 2026
In July 2026, the San Francisco Chronicle featured Broken Dreams as part of its coverage surrounding the return of the Chronicle's Top 100 Restaurants issue. The article explores my journey from Oakland to Vietnam and back again, and the inspiration behind Broken Dreams. It tells the story of how nearly two decades immersed in Vietnamese culture shaped my approach to food, hospitality, and cultural understanding, ultimately leading to the opening of Broken Dreams in downtown Oakland.
International Coverage: Kenya Spotlights Broken Dreams
Broken Dreams has begun attracting international attention with a feature in Kenya’s Streamline Feed, a Nairobi-based news and information platform. The article explores the cultural history of cơm tấm, the philosophy behind preserving authentic Saigon cuisine, and the journey of Geoffrey Deetz and Quynh Nhu Nguyen in bringing one of Vietnam's most iconic street foods to Oakland. Rather than simply announcing a restaurant opening, the feature examines Broken Dreams as a story of culinary heritage, resilience, and the global appreciation of regional Vietnamese cuisine.
Read the full article at Streamline Feed →
Reimagining Le Colonial Through a Vietnamese Lens
San Francisco Chronicle • Chris Macias • 2022
When Nhũ and I joined Le Colonial as Executive Chef and Bakery Consultant, we accepted the opportunity with a clear purpose: to help present Vietnamese food and culture with greater respect, accuracy, and understanding. The San Francisco Chronicle followed that journey, documenting the changes we made to the menu, the restaurant's cultural presentation, and the philosophy that guided our approach. Together, we expanded the menu to include a wide variety of plant-based Vietnamese dishes while ensuring every decision reflected the history, traditions, and diversity of Vietnamese cuisine.
For us, it was an opportunity to demonstrate that honoring another culture begins with listening, learning, presenting it with care, and treating its people and traditions with the respect they deserve.
I think this version is stronger because it keeps the focus on what you accomplished rather than why you were hired. It also avoids reopening the controversy from the headline and instead leaves the reader with the impression that your contribution was constructive and culturally thoughtful.
A Homecoming Through Vietnamese Food
San Francisco Chronicle • Chris Ying • 2017
After nearly sixteen years living and working in Vietnam, I returned to Oakland with a simple goal: to share the regional dishes, techniques, and flavors that had become part of my daily life. Chris Ying's San Francisco Chronicle feature explored the inspiration behind Temple Club, highlighting a menu built around Central Vietnamese cuisine, bold broths, vibrant herbs, and the belief that Vietnamese food deserved far greater depth and regional representation than was commonly found in the Bay Area at the time.
The article also reflected my long-held belief that great Vietnamese cooking depends on balance, freshness, and respect for traditional techniques—from richly developed broths to the bold, concentrated fish sauce that gives each dish its character. Temple Club became the beginning of a new chapter, bringing the lessons learned in Vietnam back home to Oakland.
Read the full San Francisco Chronicle feature → (Chronicle subscription may be required)
Temple Club Named One of the Bay Area's Top 100 Restaurants
---------------------------------------------------------
Michael Bauer selected Temple Club as one of the San Francisco Chronicle's Top 100 Restaurants, recognizing its regional Vietnamese cuisine and its contribution to Oakland's dining scene. The recognition placed Temple Club alongside many of California's most celebrated restaurants and introduced a wider audience to the bold flavors and traditions of Central Vietnam.
Bringing Vietnam Back to Oakland
East Bay Express • Janelle Bitker • 2017
After sixteen years living and working in Vietnam, I returned to Oakland with a simple goal: to share the regional dishes, techniques, and flavors that had become part of my daily life. Before Temple Club opened its doors, the East Bay Express introduced readers to a restaurant inspired by the food I had come to know throughout Vietnam, with a special focus on the bold, often-overlooked regional cuisine of Central Vietnam.
The article highlighted Temple Club's commitment to presenting Vietnamese food with the same balance, freshness, and respect for tradition that I had experienced while living overseas. From vibrant herbs and carefully prepared fish sauces to dishes rarely seen in the Bay Area, Temple Club was created to bring a deeper understanding of Vietnam's remarkable culinary diversity back home to Oakland.
Food Lovers Discover Temple Club
Hungry Onion • Community Review • 2017
Shortly after Temple Club opened, members of the nationally respected Hungry Onion food forum began sharing detailed reviews of their meals. Diners praised the restaurant's regional Vietnamese cooking, describing dishes from Central Vietnam as vibrant, balanced, and unlike anything else available in the Bay Area. Several reviewers commented on the depth of the herbs, spices, and fish sauces, and many highlighted the restaurant's willingness to present Vietnamese food as it is enjoyed in Vietnam rather than adapting it to familiar American expectations. One reviewer was so impressed after lunch that they returned the very same day for dinner.
Everyday Vietnam Comes to Oakland
Alameda Magazine • 2018
Alameda Magazine explored the philosophy behind Temple Club and the years I spent immersed in everyday life throughout Vietnam. Rather than focusing on dishes already familiar to Americans, the article highlighted my commitment to introducing the regional foods that millions of Vietnamese enjoy every day—especially the cooking of Central Vietnam. It also shared the experiences, street markets, conversations, and friendships that shaped my understanding of Vietnamese cuisine, and why Temple Club was created to bring those traditions to Oakland with the flavors, herbs, sauces, and balance found in Vietnam itself.
Sharing the Vietnam I Came to Know
Berkeleyside Nosh • December 5, 2017
Rather than reviewing individual dishes, Berkeleyside Nosh sat down with me to discuss the years I spent living, cooking, and building restaurants throughout Vietnam. We talked about the differences between Northern and Central Vietnamese cuisine, the importance of herbs, regional cooking traditions, and why so many everyday Vietnamese dishes remain virtually unknown outside the country. It became an opportunity to explain that Temple Club wasn't created to reinvent Vietnamese food—it was created to share the Vietnam I had come to know through nearly two decades of living there.
Food Enthusiasts Discover Temple Club
Temple Club quickly became a topic of conversation on Bay Area food forums, where diners shared photographs, discussed regional Vietnamese dishes, and introduced others to foods that many had never encountered before. From grilled sour pork rolls and jellyfish salad to Mi Quảng and house-made condiments, guests documented meals over multiple visits and encouraged others to seek out dishes rarely found outside Vietnam.
What Guests Were Saying
Temple Club earned praise not only from food critics, but also from diners who had traveled extensively throughout Vietnam. Guests frequently described the restaurant as one of the most authentic Vietnamese dining experiences they had found in the United States, highlighting the changing regional menu, house-made sauces, and flavors that reminded them of meals they had enjoyed in Saigon, Hội An, and beyond.
Read guest reviews and collected articles →
Postcard – Temple Club
A Rare Look Inside Temple Club
One of the most comprehensive stories ever written about Geoffrey Deetz and Temple Club appeared in Life in Southeast Asia. Rather than focusing on awards or trends, the feature explored the philosophy behind the restaurant, the years Geoffrey spent living and cooking in Việt Nam, and how that experience shaped every dish that left the kitchen. It examined everything from ingredient selection and regional authenticity to the evolution of modern Vietnamese cuisine, while documenting Temple Club as an extension of Geoffrey's life in Southeast Asia rather than simply another Oakland restaurant. Today, the article serves as both a snapshot of Temple Club and a record of a remarkable period in Vietnamese food culture—one experienced firsthand and ultimately brought home to Oakland.
GQ's Best Noodle Dish in America
In 2018, GQ restaurant critic Brett Martin traveled the United States in search of the country's most memorable new restaurants and dishes. Among his thirteen national selections, Geoffrey,s and Nhu,s Mì Quảng Phú Chiêm at Temple Club was recognized as America's Best Noodle Dish. Martin praised the bowl's authenticity, complexity, and remarkable textures, describing it as "an unfolding riot of texture in every bite."
Unlike the soup-style versions commonly found throughout the United States—and increasingly throughout Việt Nam—traditional Mì Quảng is a relatively dry noodle dish. It is dressed with only a small amount of rich pork and annatto broth and finished with a bold garlic fish sauce that brings together tender annatto-braised pork, shell-on shrimp, quail eggs, roasted peanuts, fresh herbs, banana blossom, sesame rice crackers, and thick turmeric noodles. Our version remained faithful to the traditional recipe from Phú Chiêm, the historic birthplace of this celebrated style of Mì Quảng in Quảng Nam Province. It was there that Geoffrey first fell in love with the dish, in the home province of his wife, making it one of the most personal recipes on the Temple Club menu. Hence the name, Mì Quảng Phú Chiêm.