DC: How did experiencing American cuisine for the first time compare to the traditional Cambodian food you were used to eating?
MS: I grew up eating my mother’s traditional Cambodian food and it always felt like home, but I will admit the first time I ever bit into a Whopper I loved America!!!!
DC: What life-changing events led you to start cooking and sharing your home country’s food?
MS: When my brother passed away a year and a half before the pandemic it broke my mother’s heart, but cooking kept her from falling into depression. When the pandemic started, I went on furlough from my job at Lettuce Entertain You and she couldn’t continue with her catering business and fell into depression again. The only way to get her out of it was cooking, so we decided to just show some of our dishes on social media to get her excited again, and everything grew from there. In time she woke up from her depression we started cooking with each other every day.
DC: Share how you and your mother collaborate when creating Khmai’s menu, prepping dishes, and actually cooking in the kitchen.
MS: My mom makes most of the decisions (LOL). She shows me the traditional recipes and techniques to use, and I execute them for American customers.
DC: Compare what your goals were from when you first opened Khmai to what they are now.
MS: Our goals haven’t changed much, they are still to introduce Chicago to Cambodian cuisine, and culture.
DC: Describe what Cambodian food is and what it represents to your culture.
MS: Cambodian food is very different. It has complex layers of flavor that are often strong and difficult to use. It represents part of our culture that the horrors of Communism and the Khmer Rouge tried to eradicate.
DC: What three things do you want customers to experience when they visit your restaurant?
MS: Complex and delicious flavors. The beauty of Cambodian culture and history before the genocide. A sense of family and community.