Ciao! February March 2020 CIAO_FebMar2020 | Page 10

inthekitchen
inthekitchen
thai
cuisine
queen
Chef Sumruoy Poomrat of Siam Thai
earns her place amongst the city’s
culinary royalty.
by Jessie Schmidtke
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from Chef Sumruoy Poomrat,
it’s authentic Thai food can’t be rushed—it takes time. Her teacher,
Rajawongse Thanadsri Sawasdiwat, a chef who cooked for the
king of Thailand, taught her this valuable lesson and it has acted
as a guiding principle for her, now on the other side of the Pacific.
The more Poomrat talks, the more it’s clear she is proud of never
taking shortcuts. She explains that the heat on the stove is most
important, slowly simmering and stirring sauces—some for well
over an hour—to get the proper consistency and balance of flavour.
Beware the restaurants that dump cans of coconut milk into the
pot directly with the curry paste, she warns, neglecting to first heat
the paste until aromatic. Every dish she prepares is caringly cooked
to taste, capturing the essence of Thai cuisine, and its infamous
harmony of spicy, sweet, salty and sour.
Culinary stars like Poomrat can be found in all corners of
the city, often slipping under the radar between the hype of
new restaurants opening and social media supers. At her south
suburban restaurant Siam Thai, she is a powerhouse in the kitchen,
working her culinary prowess seven days a week. Despite its
unassuming location, the restaurant has garnered quite a devoted
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ciao! / feb/mar / two thousand twenty