A New Chapter Together: Mâm Mâm By KOTO Brings Purpose To The Table In Saigon

On a quiet stretch of Nguyễn Siêu in District 1, one of Saigon’s favorite contemporary Vietnamese restaurants is beginning its next act. On Tuesday, 28 July, Mâm Mâm officially relaunches as Mâm Mâm by KOTO, a partnership that joins one of the city’s most beloved dining rooms with one of Vietnam's most enduring social enterprises. The result is more than a new name above the door. It is a statement about what hospitality in Vietnam can be when purpose sits at the center of the business.

For those who know Vietnam’s hospitality story, KOTO needs little introduction. Founded by Jimmy Pham, the organization has spent more than three decades transforming the lives of at-risk and disadvantaged youth through hospitality training, turning first chances into lifelong careers across kitchens, hotels, and restaurants throughout the country and beyond. Its name, famously, stands for “Know One, Teach One,” a philosophy that every person lifted up carries an obligation, and an opportunity, to lift up the next.

Mâm Mâm, meanwhile, has earned its place in Saigon’s dining conversation by doing something deceptively difficult: serving contemporary Vietnamese food that feels both proudly familiar and quietly ambitious. Co-founded by Hao Tran, who is also CEO of Vietcetera, the restaurant has become a gathering point for a generation of diners who want their meals to say something about where Vietnam is headed.

Now the two are joining forces, and the launch event on 28 July is designed to explain why. Guests will hear directly from Jimmy Pham and Hao Tran as they share the thinking behind the partnership: how great hospitality can create meaningful social impact, and why building purpose into a business is not a marketing flourish but the foundation of this new venture. For both founders, the partnership is a bet that the best restaurants of Vietnam’s future will be judged not only by what they serve, but by who they serve and who they train along the way.

The evening also welcomes a third voice whose story embodies the theme of new chapters. Cat Thao Nguyen, Founder of Earth Water Farms, has traded a career as a corporate lawyer and investment executive for life as a rice farmer, a second act as remarkable as any in Vietnam’s business community. In partnership with Mâm Mâm by KOTO, Earth Water Farms will curate a special seasonal menu for the evening, built around pesticide-free rice grown on Cat Thao’s own farm and locally sourced ingredients that celebrate sustainable Vietnamese agriculture. It is a fitting collaboration: a restaurant with a social mission, supplied by a farm with an environmental one.

Vietcetera is proud to serve as the event’s official media partner, and the connection runs deeper than a logo on an invitation. The stories at the heart of this launch, of social enterprise, of career reinvention, of Vietnamese food and farming finding global-standard expression at home, are the stories Vietcetera exists to tell.

The launch unfolds in two parts. The Welcome Event runs from 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM and features short talks from the speakers, a tea break, and a happy hour reception beginning at 5:30 PM. From 6:30 PM onwards, guests can continue into an optional ticketed seated dinner: a specially curated menu by Mâm Mâm by KOTO in collaboration with Earth Water Farms, featuring Cat Thao's pesticide-free rice and paired with wine and beverages.

You can RSVP here.

The venue is Mâm Mâm by KOTO itself, at 13 Nguyễn Siêu, Bến Nghé Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, an address worth remembering, because if this partnership delivers on its promise, it will become one of the city’s most meaningful tables.

There is a familiar arc in Vietnam’s growth story: ambition first, refinement second, and now, increasingly, responsibility. Mâm Mâm by KOTO sits at that third stage. It asks whether a restaurant can be excellent and generous at once, whether a dinner service can double as a classroom, and whether the simple act of sharing a meal, mâm to mâm, tray to tray, can move a community forward. On 28 July, Saigon gets its first taste of the answer.

Join us as we celebrate a new chapter, where exceptional Vietnamese hospitality, purpose-driven business, and community come together.