We were lucky to catch up with Lasamee Kettavong recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lasamee, appreciate you joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

Good and Golden is the name of my experiential food and culture business mostly because my mother’s name is Khamsy, which loosely translates from Lao to “the color of gold” in English. And visually, food that has a nice golden hue or crisp to it is reliably ‘good’ and delicious, in my opinion. My mother taught me to cook Lao food, and I felt it fitting to honor her in this way. I was also an instructor in English and developmental writing, so I love an alliteration when it’s appropriate!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a first-generation Lao American woman. My parents and siblings were refugees from Laos because of the Secret War and had to live in camps in Thailand for a couple of years after fleeing the country. This part of my identity is integral to why I currently run a food and culture business that centers Lao cuisine and brings to the foreground Lao history.

I’ve lived many lives professionally: as a sustainability reporting consultant, an adjunct professor teaching English composition, communications coordinator, marketing and program manager at a coworking space, and even had a very short gig writing blogs for a dental marketing agency. What landed me in this industry is my love for my heritage and the healing that comes from making these dishes and crafting this unique experience that figuratively feeds my soul and literally feeds other people too. In every job I’ve worked and space I’ve inhabited, I’ve always ensured that the people I’m around feel cared for, seen, and heard; it’s a no-brainer that I’ve moved into the hospitality industry in this way with a passion that has turned into a career move.

In December 2021, G&G launched with an interactive dinner party at a dear friend’s house. We invited family and friends and tested out one of our offerings: a hosted, semi-catered dinner party during which you and your guests enjoy Lao food during a cocktail hour and then dive into a cooking lesson segment. We use traditional cooking tools, like the Lao clay mortar and wood pestle and sticky rice steamer baskets, and share information about not only the food and the tools, but about Lao history too.

G&G then debuted another offering in spring of 2022, popping up as a food vendor at an outdoor market hosted by an incredible plant shop & studio space, True Leaf Studio. When we pop up at markets, we serve Lao cuisine that emphasizes spicy, sour, and funky flavors that make this food unique and memorable. We have thip khao (rice baskets), pha khao (traditional, low dining table), pha bieng (Lao textile scarves), hom khao (white parasols), and Lao pantry essentials on display to bring the culture part to popup markets. In technical communication, one of the fields in which I earned an MA, it’s best practice to write familiar or known terms first. In this case, it would be the English word. But having learned that rule, I choose to break it to emphasize the Lao word first in the spirit of uplifting more knowledge related to Laos!

My favorite offering, which also happens to be the most labor intensive and technically difficult to pull off, is our Ma Kin Khao interactive dinner parties. We’ve hosted these at True Leaf Studio and simply put, turn the studio space into a restaurant/cooking school/party space. It’s so much fun to have people enjoy Lao food and learn to make a dish, all the while enjoying Lao music and quality company. As a business owner, it’s really validating to have an experience that people show us they truly want; each interactive dinner party has been fully seated so far!

Lastly, I want to note that I do this work so that people will know more about Laos in general. Growing up, nearly everyone around me had no idea about the country, its people, the cuisine … I think it’s so important for people to know my motherland exists.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

During our very first interactive dinner party, we were using electric burners to prepare one of the cooking lesson activities. It was the height of summer, and we kept tripping the breakers in the plant studio in which we were popping up. I’m not exaggerating that several times, the power went out. It was 1 hour until guests were to be seated, and I was near defeat with my anxiety kicking in full gear. Thankfully, the owner and the G&G crew are incredibly intelligent (and patient!) people, and we figured out what we needed to do to keep the power on. I still feel the stress in my shoulders when I think about that day. Instead of being frozen in place and crying (which I definitely have done in other situations), we just kept going: taking care of setting up the tables and the cooking lesson trays, decorating, preparing food and drink. A favorite professor of mine during my undergraduate days once told me, “When you don’t know what to do, do the work in front of you,” and that helps a ton when you’re feeling like things are out of your control.

I was diagnosed with complex, chronic PTSD, major depressive disorder, and anxiety disorder in 2018. It wasn’t a surprise, but it was a relief in some ways to have a medical professional put words to what I’d experienced my entire life. I had far from a picturesque, happy, ideal childhood, and moving into my adult life carrying that experience plus intergenerational trauma wasn’t easy. I credit my mother’s love and the support and encouragement from my family and chosen family for getting me to where I am today. I know that this is a bit of a vague response, but I’m trying to avoid trauma dumping. All that to say, I’m able to run this food and culture business and try to thrive in spite of (and in some ways) because of my past and my diagnoses, which affect my work style and management style.

I’m also a recovering perfectionist and Type A planner, and with events there are a lot of moments where you’re problem solving within seconds rather than able to sit down and write out a minute-by-minute run-of-show plan. I’ve felt like I’m one step away from throwing in the towel so often, but there really isn’t any other way out of those moments than plowing right through them.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Being part of the community here in Denton has helped G&G grow so much. It feels wrong to say it’s a “strategy,” because we just show up genuinely and readily for one another as small business owners and creative entrepreneurs. Someone recently phrased this sentiment in the perfect way, “If you want cool sh*t in your town, you have to get out and support the people bringing you cool sh*t.”

Another strategy (that I’d say is more practical and applicable for other business owners) is that we evaluate responses to our offerings and listen to what our clientele has to say. What do the people want? What has sold out quickly? What has received a warm response from the community?

There’s also something to be said about showing up as your true and authentic self. I think that our customers recognize that we’re just people also trying to make it.

Contact Info:

• Website: goodandgolden.co
• Instagram: goodandgoldenllc
• Facebook: goodandgoldenllc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kettavong/
• Other: Email hello@goodandgolden.co

Image Credits
Casey Liebel Lasamee Kettavong