Soleil Ho, Part 1 (S8E15)

Soleil Ho, Part 1 (S8E15)

From Storied: San Francisco by Storied: San Francisco

March 31, 2026 · 31 min · Season 8 · Episode 12

About this episode

This episode explores the family history of food writer Soleil Ho, focusing on their grandparents' journey as Vietnamese refugees to the US.

The story of Soleil Ho starts with their grandparents. In this episode, meet and get to know the food writer and COYOTE Media Collective member who's been on my radar since they replaced longtime Chronicle food writer and mysterious human Michael Bauer. In Part 1, we dive into Soleil's family story. It begins two generations back, when their grandparents came to the US from Vietnam in the Seventies. They were refugees from the US war in their homeland. On Soleil's mom side, the grandparents brought Soleil's mom and seven other children from Vũng Tàu to Freeport, Illinois. They had first ended up in a refugee camp in Arkansas. It wasn't easy finding a new home for such a large family, but an older refugee from Nazi Germany who lived in Freeport took them in. Soleil's mom was around 10 years old when she got to Freeport. Soleil's dad's family comes from Central Vietnam. After the Viet Cong took over, they put his dad (Soleil's paternal grandfather) in a re-education camp, where he remained for around 10 years. After that, he was released and was able to flee his homeland for the US to join his family (also a large one). They also ended up in Illinois, where Soleil's parents…

People in this episode

Host: unknown

Guest: Soleil Ho

Topics covered

  • family history
  • Vietnamese refugees
  • food writing
  • cultural identity
  • immigration stories

Keywords

  • Soleil Ho
  • Vietnam
  • refugees
  • food writer
  • family story
  • immigration

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Vietnam, Freeport, Illinois, Arkansas, Central Vietnam

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