Present Content Library
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May 8, 2025
Trang Ta
In 2022, Thu Thuy Pham and Phuong Thao Westphal, two friends of Vietnamese-German backgrounds, opened the doors to their Berlin diner DASHI. Within a short time, the diner has established itself as a popular destination for Berlin foodies and has now grown a reputation that goes far beyond the German capital...
Opening up a restaurant seemed like a natural next step for the pair, as both Thuy and Thao were raised by parents who themselves run restaurants. While common family stories might have motivated the pair to embark on their journey as restauranteurs, it is the fulfillment and desire to make meaningful impacts on others with food that has since fueled them.
Starting a business is never easy. It comes with many responsibilities, from team management to business operations, to creating new concepts. During the founding process of DASHI, there was near-constant trial-and-error. But this hasn’t demotivated Thuy and Thao from pursuing their dream. Despite the frustrating moments, every inch of progress motivates them to persevere and brings them a resounding sense of satisfaction. When asked if they could ever imagine returning to a 9-to-5 job, both agreed that was totally out of the picture, despite running a business requiring 24/7 responsibility.
“We both share a positive mindset, so we’ve remained optimistic throughout and grateful for the opportunity to pursue our passions. Over time, we have gained a deeper understanding of the daily challenges and have developed new skills and knowledge along the way.”
As a female-founded and -led business in a predominantly male industry, Thuy and Thao set an example for young women to be confident in their abilities and skills and pursue larger-than-life goals for themselves. Both stressed the need for more female-led communities that shine a spotlight on women-built spaces.
PRESENT caught the duo between their busy schedule of running DASHI and developing a new location. In a moment of respite between shifts, they shared their thoughts on work, entrepreneurship, and food.
About
Dashi
DASHI Diner was inspired by yoshoku, a Japanese culinary concept wherein Western dishes are infused with a distinct Japanese edge. Dashi, the base ingredient for much of the menu, allows us to build on both Eastern and Western flavors.
In all, it took about 18 months of development from the initial concept to opening day. We started as notes on a piece of paper discussing who we are as people and our experiences around food. We considered the values that are most important to us and how to convey them through our food. As Vietnamese-born women living in Germany, both of our personalities, experiences, and tastes exist in a cross-section of Western and Eastern food and culture. At DASHI, we embrace this multicultural, cross-border approach to food and add elements that convey the experiences of our whole team to our dishes. Inspired by Western-style cafés in Asia, our menu and aesthetic evoke a certain nostalgia and provide an escape from everyday stresses whilst simultaneously opening conversations around food, looking toward the past, present, and future.
Culinary
Diversity
“Comfort food sits at the heart of what DASHI Diner is about. A location where culinary and cultural identities embrace one another, and somewhere where it’s ok to break new ground.” – Thuy and Thao, DASHI founders
CREATING THE DASHI MENU
At the core of our menu creation process lies a deliberate and personal decision to steer clear of the term “authentic”. This term has inadvertently placed undue pressure on chefs and restaurant owners of color. Instead, we take pride in celebrating the diversity and myriad of cuisines within Asian culinary traditions. Our heartfelt mission is to showcase the limitless possibilities and expressions of Asian cuisines without restricting ourselves to any specific region or culture. We strive to combine global ingredients with borderless recipes that transcend cultural and regional boundaries, resulting in dishes characterized by distinct flavors and dynamism.
A DASHI DISH EVERYONE SHOULD TRY
Congee, a humble rice porridge that comes in two flavors: the Chicken Congee, featuring hand-pulled corn chicken, and the vegan Shiitake Congee. Congee is a renowned comfort food that is beloved in many regions in East Asia. It warms the soul, evokes childhood memories, and serves as a soothing reminder of simpler times. Our guests, particularly those who grew up savoring this dish, have shared heartwarming stories of how it feels like a warm blanket and brings back fond memories.
New Beginning
We all have dreams and passions. Sometimes, the urge to turn those visions into reality is so strong that we cannot help but go for it. It gives us purpose and fulfillment. It keeps us going despite the setbacks and difficulties because it is worthwhile.
STARTING YOUR OWN BUSINESS
The idea of starting a business was always in the back of our minds. Since we always had an inherent interest in creating something from the ground up that could impact people’s lives in a meaningful way. And being the daughters of restaurant owners, it was only natural for us to consider diners as our chosen path.
We were motivated by the opportunity to explore the nuances of culture and identity through the medium of food and to form a community around DASHI that shared our values. The ability to express our beliefs and showcase our personalities through our work is a privilege that comes with owning a business. However, with this privilege comes a significant responsibility toward our team and the messages we communicate as a business. But the journey is made worthwhile by the reward of creating something that aligns with our vision and values, and being able to derive personal fulfillment from it.
LESSONS FROM OUR PARENTS
Hospitality thrives on good service. Each guest is the hero or heroine at the center of the dining experience. That is what we have learned from our parents—to always be friendly and attentive to create a memorable guest experience. Another important piece of advice; make sure to get proper rest because the food business is intense.
“To use food as a means to express and honor Asian stories, as well as to encourage discussions about the multitude of Asian flavors, cultures, and communities that exist means everything to us.”
BEING YOUR OWN BOSS
When you work for somebody else, you tend to manage one schedule, one set of tasks and focus predominantly on personal emotions. When you are your own boss and employing others, you need to juggle the schedules, abilities, desires of many different people. While some view their job as simply a means to an end, for founders, it’s deeply personal. You can walk away from a job with relative ease and disassociate from it, but you cannot easily walk away from something you founded yourself. Even if you do, it will still stay there as a shadow of your vision.
THE MEANING OF WORK
It is important to us that work forms part of a collaborative, creative journey. Our goal is for work to be an outlet. As founders and part of our team, we share a collective vision and open a dialogue around both food and culture. There is a practical day-to-day framework required to ensure the basic business functions are in place, so the work is not always fun. Still, we look to create an atmosphere where we share responsibility, so we can celebrate our collective successes and learn from our setbacks together.
PERSONAL FULFILLMENT
DASHI is, undoubtedly, a fulfilling project. To use food as a means to express and honor Asian stories, as well as to encourage discussions about the multitude of Asian flavors, cultures, and communities that exist means everything to us. It is a dream come true to be able to showcase the richness and diversity of Asian cuisine through DASHI. We love what we do, so this provides a sense of purpose and motivates us to keep going. That helps us overcome challenges and feels very rewarding.
How to...
MAKE DIFFICULT DECISIONS
Be realistic. You cannot make everyone happy at all times. There will be tasks that nobody wants to do, and there will be underperformers on every team. However, when team members feel engaged by the job and company ethos, they cope better with complex scenarios. As long as you are fair, transparent, and direct in your communication, you can make difficult decisions effectively.
ENGAGE TEAM MEMBERS
We communicate our company’s values to provide a clear collective purpose and support our team members’ growth tailored to their talents and expertise. Our team members come from diverse backgrounds, with the majority from BIPoC communities. We encourage and welcome each team member’s input and contribution but leave it to them to decide the intensity and pace at which they want to develop. In addition, we strive to meet the needs and desires of our team members, like accommodating their work schedules around their lifestyles. During the hiring process, we inquire about their dreams and goals, and do our best to support them in achieving those aspirations while staying realistic.
MANAGE A TEAM
As a manager, you need to assess your team members’ motivations and personalities. It’s also important to appreciate that there is more to an employee than their job. We like to assign responsibility early to team members so they have an immediate pathway to growth. This engages them at an early stage in the work process. It requires a high level of communication which integrates them quickly.
BALANCE WORK AND LIFE
What works best for us is having other responsibilities outside of work: our kids, family, friends, and hobbies. That way, we always make time for these escapes from work that build on other life interactions.
DEAL WITH STRESS AND WORRIES
With humor and with a “we will get through it” mentality; solution-oriented rather than problem-oriented.
Challenges
Setbacks and challenges are always frustrating. But at the same time, negative experiences are invaluable for growth and learning, both personally and professionally..
Restaurant functionality is crucial. It takes a significant amount of money to design a space, purchase all the equipment, and get the restaurant into operation. From experience working in other restaurants, one of the biggest challenges is having a space that is not appropriately designed and resourced to meet the demands of the menu and guests. So, we engaged in every detail of the space to ensure that. We learned computer design programs and modeled every millimeter ourselves. This engagement with spatial design meant we could foresee problems from an early stage and overcome them in all aspects of our space, leaving nothing to chance.
Staffing in the hospitality industry is also challenging. Many people work gastronomic jobs as a stopgap between studies or while traveling. Sometimes, this can be beneficial if you need temporary support. However, high staff turnover can be damaging to team morale. Therefore, we have developed our recruitment process to better understand potential candidates’ aspirations and attitudes. We are willing to provide training, so we prioritize finding candidates with values and principles that match those of DASHI rather than looking only at their existing skill set.
Routines
and
Rituals
TO STAY CREATIVE
We have implemented a structured approach to our creative process. It may seem counterintuitive to some but has proven to be very helpful. For example, we have KPIs tracking the performance of various aspects of the business so we can direct our creativity toward where it’s needed. That means our creations are immediately put into action, and issues are readily overcome. The feasibility of our creations becoming real-world operations excite us. While we strive to make our dreams a reality, we acknowledge the logistical and financial constraints of running a business. This supports us in introducing some objectivity into creative processes.
AFTER A LONG WORKDAY
We welcome escapism in the form of watching food in films. It can be useful to switch our minds off from work and see something from a completely different angle when we return to it. Our forever favorites are Eat Drink Man Woman, The Scent of Green Papaya and Little Miss Sunshine—the ice cream scene especially. All of Juzo Itami’s films are great, too.
Now or
Never
If you are thinking of rebooting your career or have a passion project you have been meaning to do, don’t wait for the perfect moment. Just get started — yesterday, you said tomorrow.
Words of Encouragement
Dream, believe, achieve.
