A menu gets treated, most of the time, as a logistics problem: feed this many people, accommodate these allergies, stay within this budget. All true, all necessary, and all beside the actual point of a menu at a designed event. A tasting menu is a narrative device. Each course is a sentence in a story the guest is eating their way through, whether anyone's told them that or not. The sequence matters as much as any individual dish: what arrives first sets an expectation the n

Some of our leadership retreats in Vietnam have come with Halal requirements. Treated as a design parameter from day one, the requirement shaped the menu rather than restricting it. Guests left regretting they hadn't had longer to explore the Vietnam Halal-friendly dining scene, not feeling limited by it. The same is true of vegetarian dining. Hà Nội has a remarkable range of vegetarian food, and we often introduce vegetarian dishes to non-vegetarian guests as a discovery in