2 Tips For Better Bánh Mì Sauce, According To A Chef

Bánh mì are a beloved Vietnamese staple with global appeal. The protein filling may change but there's a foundational formula that defines it; every bánh mì sandwich is served in baguette-style bread with cilantro, pickled veggies, and a chili-infused mayonnaise sauce. An easy bánh mì sauce that we use in our recipe for tofu bánh mì blends mayonnaise and sriracha, two household staples. However, we spoke with a chef who thinks that store-bought and scratch-made components should be used in equal measures. Chef Kevin Tien of acclaimed Washington, D.C. restaurant Moon Rabbit is a five-time James Beard semifinalist, with his restaurant appearing in "The New York Times" list of America's best restaurants in 2024, and says homemade mayo is where it's at, mixed with one of two store-bought sauces for seasoning.

The chef says, "I like to make my own mayo using egg yolks only and to have Maggi or Golden Mountain seasoning as well." Maggi is a fermented sauce made with wheat gluten and additional seasonings, giving it a complex trifecta of salty, smoky, and roasted flavors. Golden Mountain sauce may be lesser known, but we have dedicated an entire article on what it is and how to cook with it. It's basically a Thai soy sauce with the perfect balance of sweet and salty. Both seasonings will bring a world of depth to complement bánh mì's savory meat, spicy chilies, and pickled veggies.

Adding a dash or two of either Maggi or Golden Mountain seasoning to bánh mì sauce is effortless. You can easily buy both sauce bottles online, with Maggi liquid seasoning coming in at $12.49, and Golden Mountain under $8. In fact, we add a teaspoon of all-purpose powdered Maggi seasoning (called Maggi Season Up) to mayonnaise in our simple bánh mì sandwich recipe. Maggi's smokiness would work well with the charred pork in this recipe for charred pork bánh mì. Golden Mountain seasoning is often used to substitute fish sauce, so it would work well to enhance the umami flavor of red snapper in this tempura red snapper bánh mì. The sweetness in Golden Mountain would also complement the savoriness of pork belly, which we think is the best type of meat for bánh mì.

Chef Kevin Tien's tip for making the mayonnaise base from scratch requires some finesse, but we have plenty of homemade mayonnaise recipes for you to try. As he says, egg yolks are the star of the show, and you really only need oil and acid in addition to whip up a batch of mayonnaise. We opt for a blend of grapeseed and extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice in our homemade mayonnaise recipe. But if you want a mayonnaise that's more amenable to the Asian flavors of a bánh mì, try our recipe for copycat Kewpie mayonnaise that uses rice vinegar, vegetable oil, and MSG.