Often described as a mother hen in the kitchen, because of her great sense of family, loyalty, and care for her team, Chef On grew up around food and cooking. From an early age she learned the art of traditional Thai in the family kitchen with her mother and grandmother and then at the age of 12 started her apprenticeship in restaurants in Bangkok. In a totally cinematic way, On was discovered by Crown when she was working for the Thai Embassy in Bangladesh. She came to Melbourne in 1997 and has been cooking for VIP guests in the Mahogany room until this year when she stepped into the role of head chef at newly opened Ging Thai, a fun Thai restaurant on Southbank which specialises in Thai food with a modern twist.
On, I was reading your bio and saw that you come from a line of women chefs and I love hearing about women in the kitchen because here it is largely a male dominated industry. Can you tell me how you started? What was your first experience with food?
I started peeling onions. My grandmother told me about the vegetables; what an onion was, what galangal was.
How old were you when you started cooking?
I was young. I can’t really remember. At seven or eight, we were already in the kitchen with them, seeing how they made things. In Thailand, the ladies prepare the food for the family. The men go out to work and when they come home, the food was prepared for them. That’s our custom.
Were your mother or grandmother chefs in a commercial kitchen?
My grandmother had a restaurant in Bangkok and when I finished school for the holidays, my grandmother told me to go and work with her at her restaurant. I went there and saw the cooking for all the people and I was surprised and thought it looked really good.
What did you like about the kitchen that made you want to continue working in a kitchen?
The first thing was the tasting. Then I liked watching how they did things. I wanted to know how they could peel and slice things so quickly and I wanted to do that too.
So the techniques and the flavours?
Yes.
The kitchen staff understand the basics and know the flavours already and I can tell them whether I want it sweeter or more sour and then they know. We have to work as a team, but I have to set the standard. But we are like a family.
I was reading too about the complexities and subtleties of Thai food and I wonder whether a lot of us think of Thai food as pretty simple because of Thai takeaway. Maybe we don’t understand those subtleties and complexities. What do you think are the important flavours and things about Thai food that you could tell me.
For me, cooking in a restaurant kitchen is different to takeaway because we cook so much fresher and it is served straightaway so it smells nice and the flavours and the taste, like fresh lime juice and other ingredients, are so fresh. But takeaway can be covered up for half an hour, so the juice comes out of the vegies and it kills the taste.
What would be the main ingredients, do you think?
For me, Thai food is galangal, chilli, shallot, garlic and all the herbs and lime juice and fish sauce.
I was reading that you do Traditional Thai recipes but with a modern twist. What would that twist be?
For example, chilli, garlic and fresh galangal are the basis of lots of dishes, but we might reduce the chilli and add more of something like cream or coconut milk to combine flavours for Western people. Some herbs are too strong for them, so we use similar things and give it that twist.
What’s something on the menu that you think people should know about or that you love cooking?
Everything on the menu.
Of course.
I think Western people understand Pad Thai now.
Is the Pad Thai we have in Australia different to traditional Pad Thai in Thailand?
No, It’s exactly the same but it does depend if people are cooking it on the street or in a kitchen. On the street, maybe they use two hands in the wok, but in the kitchen we have to reduce the tamarind sauce and we reduce it with palm sugar to make it thicker so it’s a little different to what they cook on the street in Bangkok.
Just to go back to your personal journey, you were cooking in your grandmother’s restaurant and then where did you go after that?
After that I went to the hotels and worked in the kitchens there.
I read that you were working in the Thai Embassy in Bangladesh when someone from Crown discovered you. That sounds like a film. What happened? How were you discovered?
At that time I was cooking Thai food at the Thai embassy and I was cooking for royalty and it was in the news. It was the nineties. I heard that someone was looking for me and I said, wow. And then I came here in 1997.
Was it easy for you to get the ingredients here that you needed?
In 1997 it was very had, but now it is very easy and similar, so we can make dishes that taste just the same.
So when you first arrived here, it would have been very challenging. How did you manage that?
In the beginning we had to go around to see where we could get things. We went to Richmond, Springvale, to the Asian shops and sometimes we could get what we wanted.
You’ve been cooking for VIPs until now here at Crown, is that right?
Yes. I was cooking for VIPS in The Mahogany Room since 1997. And then I moved to Ging Thai to be the head chef when it opened in July.
When you started for Ging Thai, where did you start? What did you think you needed on the menu?
The first thing was the modern twist, but still with the Thai influence, so we had to go around Melbourne and taste dishes at other restaurants so I could get some ideas of things I could do.
So, you were a bit like a food critic, visiting lots of restaurants. Did you have to disguise yourself?
No, but our big bosses are really good. They know Thai food really well and they suggested things too and when I suggested things, they agreed.
How many staff do you have in the kitchen?
I have 10 chefs.
Are they all Thai chefs?
No. We have a mixture: Vietnamese, Chinese, Malaysian, Korean and Thai.
Wow, that’s really interesting. What is your leadership style with them?
They understand the basics and know the flavours already and I can tell them whether I want it sweeter or more sour and then they know. We have to work as a team, but I have to set the standard. But we are like a family.
That’s important.
Yes it is.
You spend a lot of time together in the kitchen, so it’s important to feel like a family. You’ve been a chef for a long time now, what do you think it is about being a chef that has kept you doing this job. What do you like about it still?
I love thinking about new food and mixing Asian and Western flavours. I don’t want my kids to eat junk food, but they like it, so I try and prepare good food for them that is interesting and then I think, why don't I use that on the menu as well.
It sounds as though you are very motivated and have a lot of ideas for food in your head, but where else do you get your ideas? Instagram or books?
Of course we have Instagram and books but for me, the main thing is tasting around. In the book, the recipes they write down are often not true, but if you go tasting, then you know and you can see that it looks good and then I come back and do the twist.
Southbank, Melbourne