Chef "Pam" Pichaya Soontornyanakij, Chef Nutcha Phanthoupheng, and Chef Chef Nok Suntaranon. Credit: Luis Valdizon

Three Thai Chefs, One Global Conversation

10 Minute read

13 Apr 2026

Kiki Aranita

Journalist

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As Songkran marks the Thai New Year, three chefs across continents come together through food, shaping a shared narrative of identity, tradition, and change.

Each dish lands with a story, shaped by the unique circumstances of each chef’s place. Chef Nok Suntaranon’s signature blue-hued cod dumplings, fashioned into flowers and dotted with a bright red sliver of Thai bird chili, sit on a cucumber disk. In Philadelphia, where her southern Thai restaurant Kalaya resides, the dish is instantly recognizable as hers. The dumplings have become emblems of the city’s electric restaurant scene in their own right.

Tangy, creamy water buffalo cheese, aged with tamarind, decorates a riceberry risotto, a marriage of the bounty from chef Nutcha Phanthoupheng’s family farm in Thailand and her adopted home of Richmond, Canada. That cheese comes from the same water buffalo Phanthoupheng serves at her restaurant, Baan Lao, representing the full use of a single animal in her hands. It is also a reminder of Isaan, where she grew up, and of the challenges she faced sourcing it in Canada, in a place where Chinese cuisine, rather than Thai, flourishes.

Chef “Pam” Pichaya Soontornyanakij’s gelatinous, collagen-rich fish maw, balanced by enormous, juicy Thai morels and set atop a dish of nine Thai rice varieties, has traveled with her in a suitcase from her restaurant POTONG in Bangkok, as has her Isaan sausage, flecked with long rice threads. Both are unctuous, rich, and striking.

As Songkran, the Thai New Year, arrives, it marks a period of renewal, reflection, and return. Rooted in rituals of cleansing and reconnection, it is a time when distance collapses and ties to home are reaffirmed. For these chefs, whose careers have unfolded far from Thailand, that sense of return is less literal but no less present, expressed through the dishes they carry and the stories they continue to tell.

They are each powerhouse chefs, sharing their diverse experiences and interpretations of their home country and its cuisines. “The kitchen felt very calm and serene. We built a safe space and community,” said Suntaranon of cooking with her compatriots. “It was so pleasant and synergistic, while showcasing the diversity of our culture.”

Collaboration dinners between geographically far-flung chefs have proliferated in recent years. Each is an exercise in education behind the line, a way for diverse teams to come together, learn techniques from one another, and taste new-to-them ingredients. They are also tools through which marketers can tell a fresh story about a restaurant. Collaboration dinners are multifaceted beasts.

“My favorite part is being in the same kitchen, among these chefs, sharing our experiences, talking about food and life in general,” said Soontornyanakij. “It feels like home, everyone in the kitchen is Thai, away from home. And we all have different styles. Mine is more Thai Chinese, Chef Nok’s is more traditional Thai with strong flavors, and Chef Nutcha’s is more of a modern style.”

The exercise is also what has brought chefs Suntaranon, Soontornyanakij, and Phanthoupheng into one another’s orbit, each exerting their own magnetic pull and influence.

There are similar biographical threads in Suntaranon’s and Phanthoupheng’s stories. Both came to cooking later in life, but quickly lit up their adoptive cities, garnering accolades and collecting dozens of awards. Suntaranon opened the first iteration of Kalaya at 50. Now 57, she has been featured on Netflix’s Chef’s Table, received the award for North America’s Best Female Chef in 2025, a win that became the catalyst for the chefs to come together and cook, and in a short time helped shape Philadelphia’s reputation for world-class Thai food.

Phanthoupheng started cooking at 38, after a career as a nurse and cancer researcher in Bangkok. That earlier work prepared her for hospitality, where she realized she wanted to make people happy. Her intricate dishes at Baan Lao are like “natural medicine” for her customers, she said. They are a significant departure from the simple dishes she cooks at home for her children and with her parents in Thailand.

Phanthoupheng is an expert in Royal Thai cuisine. After moving to Canada to be with her husband, John, she decided to open a restaurant, periodically returning to Thailand to train with chefs schooled in the cuisine once served only at the Thai royal court. “Even in Thailand, I haven’t seen food like this,” she said of the intricate plates she serves at Baan Lao. “I’m here to show how Thai food can be so upscale.” She frequently pairs her dishes with rare teas, including one harvested from a 400-year-old tree in China that costs about $650 USD per pound. They are also often anchored by the rice her family grows in Thailand.

Both Phanthoupheng and Suntaranon remain devoted to their parents in Thailand, keeping in close touch and visiting often, even as they have built their lives across an ocean.

Despite her relative youth, Soontornyanakij is no less decorated. Named the World’s Best Female Chef in 2025 and Asia’s Best Female Chef in 2024 by the 50 Best organization, her name frequently appears alongside a string of MICHELIN acknowledgements.

Together, the chefs have been comparing notes on historic dishes. “Nok was teaching me about a traditional, forgotten dessert that I’ve never had before,” said Soontornyanakij.

“It feels like we can spread Thai flavors across the globe,” she said.

What else ties the three chefs together besides food and accolades? “Work ethic! Passion!” said Suntaranon.