The legacy story from street pho stalls to “Pho AI” at Pho Festival 2025

This year's Pho Festival has 50 booths, gathering famous pho brands from three regions with the highlight of Hanoi pho, which has been recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage, along with Nam Dinh pho.

The Festival program is full of cultural and tourism events, helping visitors visualize a journey of Vietnamese pho from traditional to modern, in which artisans of pho brands will have promotional activities, bringing diners a complete experience of the pho and fried dough cooking process, from choosing ingredients, making pho noodles, cooking broth...

Pho Festival always attracts many tourists and food lovers. (Photo: Organizing Committee)

Within the framework of the event is the Seminar "Pho becomes a UNESCO heritage and spreads internationally" with the participation of many researchers and artisans, focusing on the following contents: The journey of development from traditional dishes to global culinary heritage; the process and challenges in making a UNESCO profile for the Pho profession...

According to Mr. Pham Thanh Dung, representative of the Organizing Committee of Pho Festival 2025, in the open space of the Thang Long Imperial Citadel relic site, a lively exhibition "Pho Story" will be formed at Pho Festival 2025, recreating the development journey of Vietnamese pho through each historical period. Tourists and culinary art lovers will directly participate in activities, enjoy pho flavors and immerse themselves in the footsteps of old pho stalls and the space of subsidized pho restaurants to the booths of famous pho brands reaching the world.

A corner of Pho Hanoi space evokes many memories. (Photo: BTC)

One of the important highlights is the journey to experience the typical flavors of pho from different regions and localities such as pho from the Northwest highlands, Nam Dinh, Hanoi, central, southern regions and international pho, showing the diversity of Vietnamese pho throughout the S-shaped land, honoring the identity, processing techniques and creativity of culinary art in each bowl of pho.

Along with the typical pho stalls with rich traditional flavors, diners are also brought back to the memories and nostalgia of the Hanoi beer stalls during the subsidy period, where hot bowls of pho and cold draft beer were once symbols of the once-popular meals full of flavor. The beauty of Hanoi's culinary art is also recreated with the lotus tea space, bringing the elegant beauty of the Vietnamese tea art, helping visitors have moments of relaxation amidst the vibrant life of the festival.

One detail that has attracted special attention at this Pho Festival is the statue of a Hanoi Pho Street Vendor, an image that symbolizes the entire development process of the Vietnamese Pho cultural heritage. The statue is recreated from the original sculpture “Pho Tranh” by artist The Son and sculptor Tran Quoc Thinh in Hanoi’s Duy Tan culinary district.

The statue is about 1.75 m high, made of composite and imitation bronze, simulating the image of a man selling pho in the early 20th century on the streets of Hanoi with a shoulder pole, a pot of steaming broth on one side and a pho cage on the other.

The image of pho on the street has entered literature and poetry, carrying with it the memories, flavors, and lifestyles of Vietnamese people through many generations. This is also the origin for pho to gradually enter restaurant menus over the years, appear on the international culinary map, and become a cultural heritage of Vietnamese people.

The statue of the Hanoi Pho Street Vendor will be placed at the 2025 Pho Festival. (Photo: Organizing Committee)

Visiting the space of the Vietnamese Pho Festival before the opening ceremony, Mr. Nguyen Tien Dat, representative of an international travel agency, commented: “The pho ganh statue is a unique highlight, demonstrating creativity and the spirit of honoring Vietnamese culinary culture. The work has truly become a symbol of diligence and ingenuity in the profession of cooking pho and conveys the story of the journey to spread the quintessence of Hanoi pho to all regions. We appreciate the sophistication in design and the message that the work brings, contributing to highlighting the value of national intangible cultural heritage of pho at this year's Festival."

Many culinary researchers have compared Hanoi cuisine to not only being delicious but also being able to tell a story. With the 2025 Pho Festival, Hanoians are using pho to tell their own story: a city that is both ancient and modern, profound in its sophistication and creativity. It can be said that the pho street vendors are a link in time that preserves the cultural features of the past and present in the memories and souls of the elegant and gallant Hanoians.

Over time, following the historical journey of formation and development, Vietnamese Pho has been spreading to other countries and becoming a famous brand on the world culinary map. In the strong transformation of the digital age, this year's Pho Festival also has its own unique features with the journey of experiencing "AI pho" in the digital age. The Organizing Committee has arranged pho booths applying AI-Chatbot technology in the event to enhance the experience of attendees, optimize the organization process and support event promotion.

Accordingly, there will be pho stalls that pay by card, fully automated and robotized from the service stage to the processing and seasoning process according to the customer's request. Here, the Organizing Committee will introduce some models of automatic pho service, convenient, fast, compact, suitable for office environments, public entertainment areas while still ensuring the quality and flavor of traditional pho and interesting experiences for young people.

Pho Festival 2025 is directed by the Office of the Hanoi People's Committee; implemented by the City Convention Center with the support of Masan Consumer Joint Stock Company and Hanoi Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation, and Bluezone purified water brand. The event is one of the activities contributing to bringing the quintessence of Vietnamese culinary culture to the world, aiming to become a cultural heritage of humanity.

Members of the Nam Dinh Old Pho Club. (Photo: Organizing Committee)

Source: https://nhandan.vn/cau-chuyen-di-san-tu-ganh-pho-rong-den-pho-ai-tai-festival-pho-2025-post873220.html