| Pairoj Kaoropwongchai has been a chef for about 25 years. He joined the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort & Spa in 2004 when the hotel was rebranded, and helped launch the resort’s new Thai Thai restaurant. Originally from Bangkok, Chef Pairoj learned to cook both Thai and Chinese food from many people. In the past, he said, most of the chefs making Thai food were older women with huge experience, while the experts on Chinese food were usually men from Hong Kong. He is also expert in a range of other Asian cuisines. Phuket.com grilled Chef Pairoj about his life as a chef. When did you make cooking your career? Many years ago, I started as a junior member of the kitchen staff. It took me five years to get promoted to a chef so that I could cook and manage my own work. What? Where? I liked moving around to get new experience, and this included periods overseas, in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. Working with foreigners taught me to develop my cooking skills and my food presentation. I also learned how to adjust Thai food to fit foreign palates, yet using Thai methods and preserving Thai flavours. What is the best part of being a chef? I think it’s when you have chance to create new dishes or a new type of food that you can claim as your very own invention. For example, I devised fried ostrich with young green peppercorn. As for presentation, I make crispy noodles out of beetroot, sweet potato and taro, and I use deep-fried flowers to decorate my dishes. These always impress diners. What do you most like to eat, and why? I like hot, spicy food. It can be from any part of Thailand but it has to have lots of chili. Some of my favourite dishes are tom yam(sour, hot soup), nam prick (chili sauce) and gaeng pah (forest curry). I also like kway tio (noodle soup) because I can always add more spices to it. What is your top priority at work? I think teamwork is the most important thing. I have seven people working for me at Thai Thai restaurant. Whether my work is successful or not depends partly on them, too. If you were not a chef, what other career would you choose? That’s a hard question. I’ve never been anything but a chef. Maybe I might try being a food writer. I’d like to write for magazines about food, sharing cooking techniques and tips with readers. |