Chef Phila Lorn was not necessarily aiming for “quote-unquote authentic” Cambodian food when he opened Mawn in his native Philadelphia two years ago. So when he approached some Cambodian teen patrons, he braced himself for questioning. “Someone’s going to say something like, ‘That’s not how my mom makes her oxtail soup,'” Lorn said.
Cambodian American chefs are finding success and raising their culture's profile. On their terms
