Cooking makes people happy. It’s art you can taste, rather than simply appreciate with your eyes.

My parents weren’t a plastic family. They always cooked for us and I always helped by preparing ingredients.

Don’t waste your time on things you don’t like. I nearly gave up studying liberal arts at university. I didn’t see the benefit. I told my mom that I wanted to study cooking and she said I had to finish my degree. I ended up moving to Australia to finish my degree in restaurant and catering management and followed it up with my master’s in Thai gastronomy.

I applied to more than 40 places [in Bangkok] but no one responded. I finally got a job after a walk-in interview with the JW Marriot and later moved to The Met’s kitchen where I started working as a commis chef under Head Chef Amanda Gale. She introduced me to David Thompson, of Nahm, who later gave me the chance to work with him in London for nearly two years.

Living in London was tough. I worked so hard that I ended up at the hospital five times in two years.

Bo.lan wouldn’t be what it is without Dylan (Dylan Jones, her husband and Bo.lan co-owner). When I talked to him about going back to Thailand and opening a restaurant, he said he only wanted to open a Thai restaurant.

You can never know whether a decision is right until you make it. People thought we were stupid to open a fine dining Thai restaurant in Thailand, as we had mostly studied Thai food from a foreigner’s perspective. But we’ve long proved that we could make it.

Don’t compromise on your philosophy. The thing that I’m most proud of is that our business is doing well and we’re sticking to our principles. We still serve tomyam with chili and don’t serve Thai food in Western-style courses, but you still get to enjoy a great ambiance. That’s where we’re different.

I want to spread Thai food culture throughout the world but in the right way, where we actually eat everything at the same time. Many chefs think they can make Thai food more luxurious by separating it into courses like Western cuisine. This isn’t right. If you ask a French chef to serve all the dishes at the same time, as in Thai cuisine, they will kick you out. I want the opposite to be the standard for Thai kitchens, too. Stop making tomyam as an entrée!

Some people question how we can charge so much for Thai food. I reply by asking, “And you’re happy to pay B380 for a rocket salad with balsamic dressing?” Thai food requires lots of knowledge and effort to produce, and it’s all by hand. Please appreciate this.

Arguments make our dishes tastier. Dylan and I always fight in the kitchen. It’s a good thing that we do. It’s a form of brainstorming that improves our cooking.

I actually enjoy cooking Western food as it’s less complicated than Thai food.

Thai food is all about individual preference. That’s why we have seasonings and fish sauce on the table.

There’s no single authentic Thai food, for me. In the past, families cooked their own food so their recipes varied and were influenced by ancestry, whether it was Thai, Chinese or Indian. So it’s hard to define what, if anything, is authentic.

I want to be a food activist. I want people to know their food and why it’s important to cook their own. You can’t always rely on others as you never know what they put in your food.

Your food is your flesh and blood. People these days rely on industrial or mass produced food. They buy it for convenience, not quality. Some blame capitalism, but you still chose it. Capitalism is just a concept.

Humans neglect the four necessities these days. People can’t build their own homes, can’t make their clothes, can’t make their medicine and can’t grow their food. You can live without the first three, but you’re dead if you don’t eat.

Cooking is the easiest way to be healthy. I try to convey this message whenever I can, especially when I appear on the TV program Kin Yoo Kue [Eat, Live, Being] on TPBS and when I hold classes at culinary schools.

Having a baby changed my life completely. It’s a love I never knew before. My son teaches me about sustainable life. Babies can laugh without money or belongings. Happiness isn’t about how much you have.

Fusion food in Thailand is annoying. It only works if you know the best of both cuisines. But mostly it’s interpreted in a messy way.

I want new Thai chefs to take Thai cuisine seriously. Many focus on Thai food because they want to work abroad. I want new chefs to fight to preserve our cuisine.

Chefs must have ethics when it comes to preserving the environment and people’s health. I get really irksome with all those Sunday brunches with foie gras, oysters, salmon and snow fish! Chefs must know that they can influence people on these big issues.

I dream of writing a Bo.lan cookbook for posterity. A panang [red curry with peanut] that was cooked a hundred years ago isn’t like a panang that’s cooked today. I want to preserve these recipes for the future.