A fried pho fiasco has emerged at the State Fair of Texas, which won’t even be opening its gates for another month.
Michelle Le’s fried pho dish was recently selected as a finalist in the 2023 Big Tex Choice Awards, but her celebrations were cut short by accusations that her recipe copied another twist on the classic Vietnamese soup served at a Dallas restaurant, The Dallas Morning News reported.
As recently reported in The Dallas Express, earlier this month, the State Fair of Texas revealed the 10 entries selected from a field of 36 semi-finalists making it into the finals of this year’s Big Tex Choice Awards. Each entry was judged based on uniqueness, presentation, creativity, and taste.
In the finals, a winner will be selected for three different categories: “Best Taste – Savory,” “Best Taste – Sweet,” and “Most Creative.”
The stakes are high for concessionaires like Le, who has been serving up food at the State Fair since 2011 and had never made it to the finals before.
Her dish is inspired by her father-in-law’s pho, she said.
It takes the ingredients of the traditional Vietnamese soup, rolls them in a tortilla, and fries it a golden brown. The fried treat is served with some Pho broth as a dipping sauce.
“We were supposed to be celebrating this weekend, celebrating a dish that brings our family together, and that we were able to bring it to the State Fair of Texas,” Le told the DMN.
“It was a really happy time — that had a shadow cast over it this weekend,” she added.
That shadow was an Instagram story from Tim Lee, a social media influencer, in which he noted the parallels between Le’s creation and one called the “phorrito” (a pho+burrito hybrid) served at Dallas restaurant Cris and John’s.
Lee called the similarities between the two foods a letdown.
The owners of Cris and John’s — Cristina and John Pham — then posted that they were taken aback to see a pho recipe reminiscent of their own gain attention after they were approached by State Fair representatives and asked to come on as concessionaires.
All of the posts from Lee and the Phams have since been taken down.
“This whole situation has made us feel very uncomfortable and we did not even want to post a response in the first place,” the Phams later said in a statement, according to the DMN. “We would very much like to move on and solely focus on our food.”
Nonetheless, the controversy has somewhat soured the achievement for Le.
“We’re not out to take anyone’s customers or steal ideas,” Le told the DMN in defense of her dish. “We’ve been talking about [frying pho] for years.”
Karissa Condoianis, the State Fair of Texas’ senior vice president of public relations, has since clarified that the State Fair had been interested in Cris and John’s bao bun tacos, not the phorrito, according to the DMN.
The couple had not signed on due to scheduling issues. Regardless, they would not have qualified for the 2023 Big Tex Choice Awards since it is only open to those with one year of concessionaires’ experience.