“I said to myself, ‘If I don't do it, I'll be thinking all my life I should do that, I should do that’” says Trang Le, thinking back five years ago when she took the plunge and started her now thriving food truck and restaurant business.

Not one to sit still, Trang is now preparing to open a second Trang Hue store in the new Orange City Centre food court when it opens in mid-November.

“I'm ready to go, I cannot wait!” says Trang, who has bigger plans still.

Originally from Hue, Vietnam, Trang started her first business when she just 10 years old selling vegetables in the local market. Then later selling pancakes on Thuan An beach in school holidays.

But when she was just 13, Trang was forced to quit school and work full time.

“When I was 13, my family didn't have enough money for me to go to school, so I started working full time. I was selling pancakes at the school and breakfast like a baguette with bacon and egg and in the school holidays we'd go to the beach and sell pancakes banana pancakes – I did that for four years,” said Trang, who was able to make enough money to send her three siblings through school and support her mother.

But Trang realised that she didn’t want this to be her entire life; she wanted more.

“I had no future if I kept going like that,” she said. “I saw on the beach a lot people could speak really good English and they made really good money with the tourists, so I started learning English at night and in the day I go to the beach to sell pineapples and the pancakes.”

And when she was 18, Trang left home to try get into the restaurant business in Hue.

“My mum was pretty surprised. She said Ok, but you make really good money in this, why would you leave? And I said I want to go to Hue so I can have a good future. You don’t make good money in Hue, but it will be good for me to get out and learn something more.”

But with very little English, Trang struggled to find a job, until finally one restaurant owner gave her a chance.

“He asked what can you do? And I said I can do anything — washing up, cleaning, cleaning toilets, I can learn anything you want me too,” she said.

“I worked for 25 dollars per month working from 7-10 and started learning. Every night I would practice over and over in my head in English, English, English.”

Trang’s undeniable work ethic paid off and after a few months she was given an opportunity to work in the front of house and improved her English further.

It was while working in a hostel in Hue that Trang met her now husband and two years later made the move to Australia.

“My husband is from Parkes and he had a job in Orange and so we moved back to Orange,” said Trang, who picked up work on her second day in town and was already dreaming of opening her own restaurant.

“In my head I always wanted to have my own restaurant; I want to share Vietnamese food, especially Hue cuisine, in Orange - everywhere I go!”

Her first venture was making Vietnamese beef jerky, selling it online and at the local Farmer’s markets. That lead to selling Vietnamese food at local markets and then further afield.

But Trang was still looking for a place of her own. 

“One night I saw the food trucks in America and I thought that's what I need! And so then I was looking all night, until nearly 6am in the morning, not sleeping that night because I am looking at all the food trucks, I thought it would really suit what I was doing,” she said.

The very next day Trang called to enquire about a truck and 3 days later was on a plane to Melbourne. Within 8 months she’d brought her very own food truck back to town. The Trang Hue Summer Street store quickly followed, and Trang is now weeks away from opening her second store.

She is also busy pushing her own line of frozen ready-to-eat-meals and sauces for home cooking, as well as her Jerky and pork crackling.

“Now I'm concentrating on the sauces; lemongrass sauce, Hoisin sauce, fish sauce and the barbecue marinade — so if people like our food they can buy the sauce and have it at home,” said Trang, who has somehow found the time to have three children during this period as well.

Her food truck now makes a weekly appearance in Dubbo and Bathurst and soon will be travelling to other Central West destinations

“We will probably start going to Forbes, Parkes, Mudgee, Wellington, Cowra, so if they are working… maybe we'll open a shop one day!”

With the new store opening in Orange City Centre, Trang is taking the opportunity to expand the menu and trading hours of current Summer Street store.

“This shop will turn into a restaurant, and we will be serving Vietnamese beer, local beer and wine and then some different food, extra tables — more special!”

The newly renovated Orange City Centre food court is due to open in mid-November.