It is fitting that The Pho King, a new locally made short documentary film, will have its premiere today (Feb. 15, 2 p.m.) in the event space at Fisher Brewing Company in downtown Salt Lake City. Directed by Jeovanni Xoumphonphackdy and supported by the nonprofit documentary-focused Leicester Productions, The Pho King is an astute, snappy testament to how multicultural community bonds can be nourished and cultivated by something like a good bowl of phở.
The smart, tight film, which runs a little under seven minutes, captures the genuine persona, humor and backstory of Brandon ‘Pho King’ Luong (‘the noodle whisperer’) whose social media visibility revved into high gear when he plumbed the depths of the available phở offerings in three Utah counties. With a hat tip to scientific methodology, he documented the progress of his research project — more than 60 bowls of phở in 45 restaurants. Using a refractometer to assess the broth’s quality, Luong created the ‘Pho Quantitative Yumminess Unit’ as his measure. Nevertheless, he didn’t let that overwhelm the objective to make phở as accessible and non-intimidating to his growing numbers of followers. The result was The Pho King SLC Graph, a four-quadrant format inspired by one that avid sports fans create to determine the best (or personal favorite) basketball players in the game.
It was Luong’s humor that kept the endeavor refreshingly light-hearted, as it sparked a lot of interest on social media. New followers on his social media platforms used The Pho King SLC Graph as their guide. As he explained in a two-part feature published in 2023 at GastronomicSLC, Utah’s most widely read digital magazine about food:
When someone declares where you can get “the best” particular dish in town, how do they really know? One day I asked myself this question and before I knew it, I was making daily visits to pho restaurants across three counties. I decided I was going to rank every single pho restaurant in town. How can someone say what the best is if they haven’t had it all, right? No rock left unturned – no nood left unslurped. Somewhere along the way I made this chart plotting every pho restaurant in Salt Lake, Utah, and Summit County.
Propelled by its personable and warm vibes that are sustained through its rapid-fire pace, the short film nails Luong’s personality on every point. While there was little or no archival footage about his phở project, Xoumphonphackdy presents a delightful montage of photos of Luong in his boyhood and his family, while summarizing their Vietnamese and Chinese roots. An excellent scene shows Luong making phở in his kitchen and then sharing it with friends in an enviable casual and comfortable setting.
Luong never sought to become a social media food influencer in the conventional sense. True, quality and respect for the provenance of a dish such as phở (or ramen, bánh mì, and hot pots) are to be commended, but Luong also steers clear of contentious didactic dialogues about authenticity and food etiquette. Even when he senses a good opportunity for trolling, he deploys humor to ease anxieties for those “worried about making a phở faux pas and getting arrested by a phở-lice officer.” This does not distract from his earnest belief in food’s communal power to bring people together who otherwise might not have connected to each other. For the premiere screening event at Fisher Brewing, Luong arranged for Sisters SLC/Chi Em to sell Vietnamese snacks, desserts and other food items that have boosted their social media presence.
Recently, Luong launched Bite Club SLC, organizing social dinners for members to meet new people. The Instagram account brought more than 700 interested individuals almost immediately. The club’s second event is set this month, but because it can accommodate a limited number of people, Luong is planning to rotate available opportunities so that as many people who have expressed interest can attend at least one event.
Xoumphonphackdy’s film is the first short doc in Leicester Productions’ newest program initiative to secure grants and support local professional filmmakers to make a short doc about stories with strong community themes. Explaining why The Pho King became the ideal prototype for this initiative, Leicester Productions’ Corey Lester, said, “Brandon’s story was perfect: a young Salt Lake City man who works hard for the community by breaking down a barrier and giving everyone — including the novice who has never tried phở — an easier way to access Vietnamese food.”
The Pho King confirms the potential in Leicester Productions’ expanded mission, which hopefully will lead to seeing locally produced short documentary films find their way into Utah and regional film festivals and beyond. Indeed, the appeal of Luong’s story and its framing in The Pho King are presented in such a way that audiences outside the local area can relate to, even as a subject might point to a different cultural topic, whether it is food, music, dance or art.
Leicester Productions already has shepherded several projects by student filmmakers from Utah colleges and universities, which they present periodically in a Student Fellowship Showcase public screening. For example, in 2022, Corey and Parker (his brother) Lester produced Every Street SLC, which chronicled Bryant Heath’s goal to run every street in Salt Lake City and how he discovered the scope of cultural diversity and beauty in the city.
After some preliminary discussions with Luong, Corey Lester approached Xoumphonphackdy, whose roots are Laotian, about directing the project. “I saw a bit of myself in Brandon and we talked about the similarities of sometimes feeling like the odd person out in our communities,” Xoumphonphackdy said. “He is such a fun dude with his carefree personality.” As for phở, he went with Pho 777, which Luong also tapped as his choice for best pho in Utah.
The film will be available on Leicester Productions’ YouTube platform. For more information about the company’s programs, see the Leicester Productions website.
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