Loving mama’s cooking
No matter how far your culinary wanderings take you, Mama’s cooking is likely what you dream about at night. As a gourmet chef, Ah-Tong is constantly trying to recapture the warmth and sweetness of her mother’s cooking.
Born in Bangkok, Ah-Tong was captivated by the magic of cooking from a young age. She would watch her mother take unremarkable fruits, vegetables, fish, shellfish and meat and add in various spices to conjure up all manner of decadent delights, whose aromas would fill one’s nostrils.
Her father was a naval officer, and their house was often full of visitors. Her mother always gave her father a lot of face by providing a table full of delicious dishes. Amid the guests’ exclamations of praise, little Ah-Tong also felt incomparable joy as she came to understand that making good food could bring great honor….
When her father was home, her mother spared no effort in preparing small dishes well suited to accompany drinking, thus providing comfort to her father, who had spent so many years serving the nation at sea. Drinking together, the two were the very picture of an affectionate couple. Such memories have remained in focus in her mind’s eye, reminding her that although cuisines will forever evolve, love is at food’s essence. Only when provided with warmth of feeling can food convey a sense of joy.
Before she was 20, in just one short year, Ah-Tong’s father and mother both died. The loss of her beloved parents forced Ah-Tong, still very young, to grow up fast. She was enrolled at Saowapa College, a culinary academy, but was also working part time, and she learned how to stoically persevere in her studies amid chaos.
Kitchen tasks are finely divided between the different staff members. Although she was majoring in cooking, when the diminutive Ah-Tong began an internship at the famous Thai restaurant of the Oriental Hotel (now the Mandarin Oriental) in Bangkok, she started with chopping vegetables. “Every day, I barely had an opportunity to raise my head since I was incessantly chopping.” She went about her business quickly and agilely, arriving at the restaurant early and first getting her own work done before observing everyone around her and lending a hand. At first the head chef was annoyed by her and would yell at her to get out of his way. But after a while, when he discovered that she could seemingly handle any job in the kitchen, he not only came to have a whole new level of respect for this “little girl” but also let her start cooking at the tender age of 18, at which point her talents began to get noticed.
Much loved by foodies, Ah-Tong’s crisp-fried grouper with fruit and her hot and sour shrimp soup succeed by balancing the thick and heavy with the clean and light.