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Who is Nong?
WHO IS NONG?
Chef Nong was born in Bangkok Thailand in 1941. She is the oldest child in her family, with two sisters and two brothers. She began cooking at age 12 with her mother because her family didn’t have much money. She wanted her brothers and sisters to have a good education, a better education than she did, and she needed to help support them. She would walk down to the little corner market and purchase vegetables, meat, and other ingredients to bring home to cook for her family.
The next 15 years were spent at home - she got married and had 4 children. But in her head, she was still carrying all the recipes passed down to her from her mother and grandmother just waiting to be put to use.
At the age of 35 she started working at Jitpochana, a large chain-restaurant in Thailand. She also began traveling to Malaysia’s Tonburee restaurant and Singapore’s Thaipann Hotel to cook as the head chef.
In 1991 she got a job offer from the Royal Orchid restaurant to come to the United States and cook, and she has been cooking in Minnesota ever since. In the Twin Cities she has cooked at Sawadee, True Thai, Dara Thai, Ruammit, and Taste of Thailand just to name a few. She has gotten wonderful reviews for her cooking in the Star Tribune newspaper.