Less than 100 years ago, it was considered inappropriate for women to dine in restaurants — let alone run them. But much has changed. This series is a tribute to the women who dedicate their time, energy and talents to making the food world a better – and more delicious – place. Check out the full "Women in Food" series.

“I started learning to cook with my mother when I was about 10,” says Vannapha (Vanna) Praseutsack, who owns and operates Sweet Basil alongside her family. “She would ask me to come stand beside her and I would watch what she was doing. This is how I learned to cook Jasmine rice and make sticky rice. She would show me how to buy and clean and cook fish. I learned to make egg rolls and spring rolls.” 

“I was the oldest sister of the seven children in my family, so it was my job to cook,” she explains. “But I always had a passion for cooking. So I cooked for my brothers and sisters and everyone because I loved it so much.” 

It was 1979 when she traveled with her family from the refugee camp in Laos where they had been staying to the United States. They arrived in Texas, but swiftly relocated to Milwaukee, where they reconnected with other family members who had settled in the area.  

“I was 13 years old when we came to the U.S.,” Praseutsack recalls. “We lived on the South Side and then relocated to the North Side where I went to Washington High School. Every day after school I would come home and cook for my brothers and sisters. Sometimes I’d go to the library and get Thai cookbooks and cook from them.

“Over time, more people from Laos came to the area and we would get together on Sundays. Everyone would bring different dishes and we would eat together. One of the biggest challenges in the beginning was finding ingredients. You couldn’t order things online and there weren’t many stores where we could find some of the ingredients we needed. So, we would substitute things. We couldn’t find papayas, so we would substitute things like carrots. It just meant we had to be creative.”

A dream deferred

Praseutsak says that by the time she was 16 or 17 years old she knew that she wanted to open her own restaurant so that she could cook food for people as a living. But she says that, for a very long time she didn’t think it would happen. 

“Opening a restaurant in the U.S. is very difficult,” she says. “And it can be very expensive. So, I knew I couldn’t do it right away. When my children were young, my husband got laid off. He didn’t speak English, so it was hard for him to find another job. But I worked many jobs. I worked as a secretary, I processed medical claims and eventually I used my knowledge of Thai and Laos languages to work as an interpreter. 

For years, she says, she dreamed of opening a restaurant. But they didn’t have the money. So she put her passion on the back burner. But as her children grew older, they decided to help her. 

“My uncle was a server at a Thai restaurant,” she says. “We all had jobs and we saved money for the restaurant. I sold egg rolls. I would wake up in the morning and make 500 eggrolls and share them with friends. My food made them happy and cooking for them made me happy. I knew it was what I wanted to do.” 

Sai Bai Dee 

The family opened their first restaurant in South Beloit in 2012. The name of the restaurant was “Sa Bai Dee”, a Lao greeting which means “Hello” or “Are you well?” And the entire family helped out including Praseutsak’s children, Victoria, Claudia and Kenneth along with her nephew and brothers.

“When we opened, I didn’t have experience running a restaurant,” Praseutsak admits. “So every day I learned something. I was always improving. I wanted to make people happy, so I worked to make things better every day. After two years, we decided that the location we had chosen wasn’t ideal. The building had a lot of problems and the location wasn’t that good. So, we looked for a new place.” 

They found the location for their second restaurant in Janesville in 2014.

“One of the mistakes we had made the first time was giving the restaurant a name people didn’t understand,” Praseutsak says. “So we called it Asian Bistro. We cooked Lao, Thai and Chinese food. So it was a really big menu, probably four or five pages. We kept adapting and adjusting things so we got better and better.”

The restaurant built a loyal following and could have remained in Janesville, but after five years Praseutsak says they decided to move to be closer to family.

“We were very successful there, and people didn’t want us to leave,” she recalls. “But my father passed away and my mother had health issues that made it easier for us to live closer to Milwaukee.”

Sweet Basil

So the family began looking for a new location. It took them about a year, but they eventually found the smaller location inside the Franklin strip mall at 6509 S. 27th St.

“When my kids brought me to this place, I loved it,” Praseutsack remembers. “I knew we could take care of every inch of it and treat it like our home. Our first restaurant was really huge, and it was harder to take care of. This space was cozy and we saw different ways to make it our own.”

It was 2019 when they secured the building that would become Sweet Basil. By the time they’d fixed things up and were ready to open, it was April of 2020 and the world was experiencing the incredible uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“We didn’t know how things would go,” she says. “Victoria came in and trained everyone to go by the CDC guidelines and we developed ways of offering curbside service. But everything was different. Chicken was triple the price because of issues with shipping products globally, there were so many thing we couldn’t find. Oil was very expensive. Asian ingredients like noodles were very hard to find. And when we could find things, the prices were very high. Sometimes we’d drive all the way to Johnson Creek to buy things.”

Fortunately, the family had a following for their delicious Thai and Lao food.

“People came right away and some people even came all the way from Janesville,” she says. “Our health inspector from Asian Bistro and her husband came to get food from Sweet Basil.  She was so kind and she loved our food so much.  

“From the beginning we started out making our best sellers and the things that we knew would sell well. Mee Hang (stir fry with ramen noodles) was one of the dishes I ate when I was growing up and a dish I also fed my children. But we also made new dishes like the Buffalo Chicken Rangoons. It took my chlldren a long time to convince me to make new things. But eventually I realized that young people eat differently and they like different things. And I realized that if we made food that we like, that other people would like it too. So, now I cook what I like and I pass it along to everyone.” 

One of the dishes they introduced at Sweet Basil was the OG Platter, a family-style dish that featured a combination of chicken wings, Lao sausage, Lao grilled steak, papaya salad, noodles, fresh pork rinds and sticky rice.

“The OG platter was based on how my mother would feed us,” says Praseutsack. “She would put all sorts of dishes on a bamboo tray and we would eat all the things together. Every household we would make four or five dishes and put it on the tray— a meat, soup, sauce, vegetable and sticky rice. And everyone would eat.  We used that model to create our platter with the idea that people could eat their meals together.”

Passing the torch

Praseutsack says that, even though she has been cooking for decades, every new restaurant has presented its own unique challenges. She also admits that, despite her love for cooking and making people happy with food, the intensity of the work to run a restaurant has taken its toll.

“I just turned 59, and we’re so busy…” she says. “I like to do things myself, but it’s getting hard for my body to keep up. Years ago, I had all the strength. The only time that I would rest was when I would take vacation. I didn’t realize until last year that I had developed health issues. But now I’ve realized that I need to slow down and rest more. 

“I am still here almost every day, but now I let other people help. My brother can cook. Kenneth can cook. And even Andrew [Victoria’s husband] can cook now. And so they all help me. And I can take a day off when I need to. But, I am so blessed to do what I love… to take care of my family and cook food for other people. When people eat my food it makes me so happy.” 

Side note: Vannapha Praseutsack told me that in the Lao language her name means “bright beautiful moon”. Having spent time with her, there is no doubt in my mind that she was aptly named. She exudes joy and there is little doubt that the food at Sweet Basil tastes better because she has had a part in it.