Nguyen Trong Huynh used to be addicted to gaming, but since studying vegetables and fruit carving at a vocational school, Huynh has quit playing games and become an ‘expert’ at carving vegetables with beautiful artwork.
Found passion after many days “addicted” to gaming
Nguyen Trong Huynh (27 years old, from Nghe An) studied for 2 years at a university, then Huynh dropped out because he was bored of his major. Huynh recalled: “Back then, I was very addicted to online games. After studying for a while, I felt that I was not suitable, so I dropped out and returned to my hometown. I did not know what else to study until my friend introduced me to study Cookery. At this point, I was lost, so I chose unintentionally. At school, most of the time I was out to play games and ask my friends to take attendance. But when it comes to vegetable carving, I didn’t quit.”
The first lesson in that vegetables carving course, Huynh found it nothing special. He saw how skillful the teachers are. But later on, when learning to cook and the dishes had to be decorated, and the more he practiced, the closer Huynh is drawn into a thought “if the teachers can do it, so do I”. Then the money meant to spend on playing games, Huynh spent for… buying carrots and squash to practice carving instead.
Huynh watched YouTube videos on how to carve the simplest things. And at school, he learned from the teacher. Huynh started with carving simple things, then flowers and cute animals. When he brought his work to school, Huynh was praised by his classmates. Posting pictures on Facebook, he was praised again, making Huynh very excited. Huynh started buying bigger ingredients like melons, squashes, and carving knives of all kinds, which cost a lot of money, so… no more money for gaming. Huynh spent all his time and money on vegetable carving and quitted gaming.
You have to experience to know what you’re capable of
“After about 2 months of studying, I feel satisfied with the products I made. What is quite surprising to me is that from the beginning I only signed up to study, and my profession has a lot of subjects, vegetables carving is not a main subject, but I was inspired by it most. Gradually, I fell in love with the profession I studied. Until now, I still think that the profession chose me, not me chose it”, Huynh shared.
Currently, Huynh works are to decorate Western and Asian dishes and inspect food at a high-class restaurant in Hanoi, with a salary of more than 10 million VND/month.
According to Huynh, the normal dishes do not require decoration, such as stir-fried vegetables. But in complicated dishes and luxurious tables, decoration is required. Huynh often decorates Japanese sashimi dishes, or does the carving to make the table more beautiful. Each piece takes about an hour or so to make.
After many years of experience, there were times when he was bored, tired and almost lost because of his addiction to online games, now Huynh has a job to love and stick with. Huynh believes that the most important thing is to find your passion.
“If you don’t have life experience, it will be difficult for you to realize what you like, and whether what you like is really suitable for you. You may make the wrong choice at first, and sometimes you have to experience it to realize it is wrong and choose again. Do not force yourself to study in university because your parents want you to be like this to compare with other people’s children. Because it is not certain that parents know what their children have, need and are able to do. You definitely have to experience it to get the answer for yourself”, from his own story, the guy who is passionate about vegetable carving gives advice to young people.
TIKTOK