ANNOUNCING THE WOMAN OF THE MONTH

Meet February’s Fort Worth Women! Hao Tran & Dixya Bhattarai are ‘eatenpreneurs’ who started a passion project in 2018 that shares their food and cultures with our city. In just a few short years these two women have won Best of Fort Worth Asian Food 2021 and were even featured in Texas Highway Magazine in March of 2021. Together they co-own both Hao & Dixya, a dumpling pop-up that also provides dumpling making classes, as well as The Table Market & Culinary Studio.

While this dynamic duo has found themselves now calling Fort Worth their home, their upbringing is what brings such global flavors to their cuisine. In 1975, after the fall of Saigon, Hao moved to South Arlington with her family from Vietnam. She describes further, “I moved to Fort Worth after college in 1990 and have seen the vibrant city it has become. I’m a mother and high school science teacher but share my cooking passion by doing collaborative dinners, pop-ups, classes, and event catering all over the Metroplex. I created “Lost in the Sauce’ (which can be found on social media) as a visual to food adventures and have become an eatenpreneur (not a misspelling). I love to eat, travel, and share culturally-inspired food.” Dixya, born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal, moved to the United States for college in 2007. She states, “I am a Registered Dietician by profession and currently I divide my time between The Table, Hao & Dixya, and my food and wellness business – Food, Pleasure, and Health.” 

Initially frustrated by the lack of authentic dumpling opportunities in Fort Worth, these two, after being introduced by a mutual friend, met at Central Market over a bottle of wine. They immediately began to brainstorm pop-ups in Fort Worth. From that very first meet up, they scheduled their first dumpling pop-up in April of 2018. At the time they were both working full-time, so the pop-ups could only be scheduled in the evenings and on the weekends. Since then their pop-ups, when not traveling, have found a home at The Table Market & Culinary Studio and they both are sharing their culture with Fort Worth in the most delicious way. They make hand-made dumplings to order as well as provide cooking classes where you can learn how to make authentic dumplings at home. Hao describes that her favorite thing about what she and Dixya do is “having a purpose in the community and sharing the foods of our culture with all.” Before they knew it, this duo went from one Central Market meeting to steadily holding public dumpling pop-ups and dumpling making classes/events 1-2 times a month.

Like all of our local business, pivoting became the name of the game come March of 2020. All of their live cooking classes were cancelled but they found a way to switch them to a virtual platform. The description of their switch to virtual classes was endearing: “We started offering cooking classes virtually with an ingredient kit which was a heartwarming experience watching families cook together during such a challenging time.” ‘Pick-Up Pop-Ups’ and ‘Curbside Dumpling Boxes’ entered their daily business vocabulary and their customers pivoted with them. Hao and Dixya also switched from in-person dumpling pop-ups to retail frozen dumpling sales at The Table in order to keep their product alive with local customers. Allowing customers to fill their freezers with handmade, original dumpling flavors was a bright spot for many of us during so many hours stuck at home.

What they have learned amidst the pandemic sounds like it will stay a permanent part of their business plan. They further describe, “Even though things are now opening back slowly, we are going to focus more on the retail side of things, aka frozen dumplings at The Table and our monthly dumpling making classes as well as private events. We may do public pop-ups but only 1-2 times a year.” Dixya describes their journey in more detail, “owning a small business with just the two of us is not always easy but we love the creative freedom and flexibility to do things on our own terms. We are still a fairly new business, figuring and learning things every single day but our long-term vision is to eventually open a bigger culinary studio with an edible garden.” Given that their ‘far-fetched’ idea, turned reality, turned living the dream, these women certainly have an authentic dumpling house, a large beautiful, fully e-quipped cooking space, topped off with a large teaching table for cooking class opportunities all overlooking an edible garden in their future. (Just to name a few specific dreams this duo has.) These two are the perfect two women to make each of those details happen.

When asked what she loved about our city, Hao described Fort Worth as home. She states, “It’s comfortable and home. It has all the feel of the big city but still small enough that everyone is kind to each other. We have great neighborhoods full of history and character and a supportive community that advocates growth.” Dixya described the city similarly, even using the word quaint. “ Fort Worth is definitely a quaint city with really nice people. The city has grown tremendously in the last few years, our culinary scene is getting more diverse, and there is a lot of support for local businesses” she describes. We are lucky this duo calls Fort Worth home and know that they are a key component of the growth we have seen in Cowtown’s culinary scene.

As Hao and Dixya gave responses about their impact as businesswomen in Fort Worth, they both mark persistence as a key component. They both describe “we kept a slow and steady pace of our business, not doing too much to overextend ourselves but we have kept up with growth and changes.” Their consistent persistence has also allowed them to juggle multiple different aspects of their careers without letting things slip through the cracks. Persistence guarantees that results are inevitable and these two are no exception.

Place “pick up frozen Hao & Dixya dumplings” on your to-do list this week and make sure to pop by The Table to make it a reality. Odds are you’ll even run in to these two beauties. To best contact both Hao and Dixya, e-mail haoanddixya@gmail.com.