Chirayu Na Ranong

Boran (2/F, Exchange Tower. 388 Sukhumvit Rd., 088-022-4022. BTS Asok)
Previous life: Travel writer for the Bangkok Post, food writer for a few magazines. Before that I studied cinema. Maybe I’ll be an astronaut next year?
Concept: Old Thai market, hence the name Boran. Classic, everyday dishes like boat noodles from the Rangsit Market and dim sum from Chinatown.
Preparation: Being a food writer, I’ve seen a lot of what works and what doesn’t. But this is a million times harder than it looks. A humbling experience.
Worst Fear: Money and having too few customers
Kitchen Nightmare: Finding a sink in our kitchen smaller than the one at  my home—not exactly suitable for a 40-seater restaurant.

Varatt Vichit-Vadhakan

Ohana Café (50/4 Sukhumvit Soi 24, 02-661-1930)
Previous life: I was working in the marketing communication industry for various clients. I actually studied Economics in college.
Concept: I wanted to serve Western style comfort food that I wanted to eat but couldn’t find after I came back to Thailand. I searched everywhere for a good cup of coffee.
Preparation: I read a lot of cookbooks, stories of successful restaurateurs, books about restaurant operations. I bothered too many business owners for knowledge. And I was prepared to fail.
Worst Fear: Dealing with ingredient purchases, dealing with safety issues, dealing with customers and, worst of all, my own staff.
Kitchen Nightmare: Construction workers who miss deadlines and the hidden startup costs that you didn’t plan for.

Jarrett Wrisley

Soul Food Mahanakorn (56/10 Soi Thong Lor, 085-904-2691)
Previous life: Studied literature and Mandarin. Went to China to work. Settled in Shanghai, wrote about restaurants. Then moved to Bangkok with my wife. 
Concept: I wanted to do a Thai restaurant, but in a different format. It doesn’t have to be street food or a shop house. There’s room to explore, even in Bangkok.
Preparation: Traveled in Thailand for two years, worked in a restaurant kitchen in the South, learned to make sausages in Isaan, cooked with old ladies, wandered through markets. Read as many cookbooks as I could get.
Worst Fear: If you’re not worrying about money, quality, consistency, margins, covers, return customers, cleanliness, spoilage and a million other things in this business you shouldn’t be in it. Fear is a great motivator.
Kitchen Nightmare: Making an old shop house new again is a pretty exhausting process.

Ayusakorn Arayankoon

4 Garcons (113 Thong Lor Soi 13, 02-662-713-9547)
Previous life: Chemist at a pharmaceutical company, then logistics guy at a large warehouse.
Concept: We [the four “garcons”] can cook Chinese, Italian, Japanese and fusion, but if we went Italian, we’d just be another Italian in town. A brasserie was missing here, a place you can eat every day, not just on special occasions.
Preparation: I’ve cooked my whole life, but for this, I took a pastry class at the Cordon Bleu every Saturday for six months while still working. We also took trips to Paris and Lyon. To me, Lyon is the center of food in France.
Worst Fear: We had plans A, B, D and E! We prepared our finances so we’d be ok for quiet nights for a few months.
Kitchen Nightmare: We were two weeks behind schedule. We wanted people to come in and do food tastings, but the restaurant wasn’t ready. We borrowed the Oakwood lobby for tastings and service rehearsals.