Former restaurateur Vu Nguyen has a new culinary endeavor: creating handmade tools for home cooks, inspired by the pros.
Tell me briefly about your background and how it led you to start The Dustworks.
I’ve either worked in the food industry or a design-focused company. My foray into food started at Bizou in my last semester at UVA. Then a short stint on the restaurant scene in Chicago before jumping ship and landing at Crate & Barrel with the intention of getting into furniture design. That led me to a drafting program from whence I emerged as a CAD monkey at an architecture firm in D.C.
Then hubris sidled up to me and made me open a restaurant in C’ville. Then another. Then I closed one. Then the other.
Defeated and adrift, I found short-lived respite at Whole Foods before succumbing to the temptations of a new restaurant opportunity. It was at Brazos where I crossed paths with Blanc Creatives, which I thought was just the coolest game in town, especially having just read Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew Crawford. So I went to seek employment with them but more importantly, to seek purpose. Then the pandemic provided the perspective to recalibrate my priorities, et voila. I enjoy keeping a toe in the food world but not having to deal with stress of dealing with perishable goods.
Where does the name come from?
The name refers to all the dust, both metal and wood, that gets produced and kicked up during the process of making things. The evidence of work or testimony to transformation, I suppose. It also loosely alludes to the idea of a temporal life cycle, the whole “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” thing.
What would you say is The Dustworks’ aesthetic?
“Apple Photos App Filter: Dramatic Warm 50-75%”
Dining at Blue Hill in a chore coat and work boots
Refined texture
Tuxedoed bedhead
Given your culinary history, do you design with chefs/pros in mind?
My experience definitely informs my decisions from product selections to ergonomics. I think about the tools I used back in the day and what other cooks geeked out over, then try to replicate and interpret them for home use. Some items, like Fenster, the mini offset spatula, will likely never gain traction with the home cook, but line cooks and chefs eat it up. Given the exposure and insight the home consumer has into the chef world these days, there seems to be more of an appreciation and willingness to budget for pro-quality tools for home use.
How many items are in your catalog and what are a few highlights?
There are currently nine in the family ranging from a chef’s knife to cocktail picks to spatulas to oyster shuckers. Rose, the bench knife, has been getting a lot of action from both pros and home cooks. Diane, the cherry spatula, has made her way into many happy households. I’m particularly pleased with Janey, the bread knife named after Janey Gioiosa of Janey’s Bread, and Anna, the Japanese style vegetable knife named after Anna Gardner of Umma’s. Two cool designs for two cool women.
Each product is named after a person. Some are people I’ve worked with in restaurants who are now running their own businesses. It’s rad to be in the company of such fearless, creative, and resourceful folks. I’d like to think we’ve been on the same path this whole time and that community gives me comfort. Other people are cultural icons or characters that have made indelible impressions on my formative years like Audrey Hepburn, Diane Lane, Blake Schwarzenbach, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Fred Fenster. The whole exercise is not only fun but keeps me focused on intention, never letting the product just be a soulless thing.
Find The Dustworks on Instagram @the_dustworks, or by email at
holler@thedustworks.com.
