Profile | Meet Asia’s Best Female Chef 2024: why Pichaya ‘Pam’ Soontornyanakij of Bangkok’s Michelin-star Potong, has her mother to thank for her success
- With her one-Michelin-star restaurant just over two years old, chef Pichaya ‘Pam’ Soontornyanakij has just been given the accolade of best female chef in Asia
- She reflects on the sacrifices her family have made to get her to this point, how she will pay it forward – and why her mum’s support has been everything to her
There is a dish that is special to Pichaya “Pam” Soontornyanakij: one that takes the form of the most elegant bundle of black and white noodles covered by a shimmering sheet of vinegar jelly and a neat cap of inky caviar.
For the 34-year-old chef of Bangkok’s one-Michelin-star Potong – who on February 6 was named Asia’s Best Female Chef 2024 by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants – it is a dish that represents her heritage, and how the culinary knowledge passed down from her mother – as well as her mother’s sacrifices – have made it possible for her to have the career she does.
“It’s a very homey dish that my mum always cooked, and she’s always telling me the tricks of the original, and how to do it perfectly,” says Pichaya. “That has stuck [in] my head until now and I cannot leave that out of the menu.”
While evidently a version that, visually, has little to do with the original that inspired it, the dish seems an unspoken expression of Pichaya’s fondness for her mother’s cooking. “When you eat it, it feels very familiar,” she says.
