Try award-winning Chef Pam’s Progressive Thai-Chinese food in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai

Experience Chef Pam's journey from fear to success at POTONG, now redefining fine dining in Thailand and India.

“We were nervous. We were scared. And we did not know what would happen next.” Chef Pichaya Soontornyanakij aka Pam is disarmingly honest when she discusses opening her restaurant POTONG in Bangkok.  

She took a lot of risks. The restaurant was set in the Chinatown neighbourhood, in a timeworn building from where her family ran her herbal-medicine business for five generations – not a conventional setting for fine dining. In addition to that, she decided to focus on a menu built around progressive Thai cuisine and her Chinese roots. And, opening in 2021 meant she had to grapple with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

She need not have worried. POTONG got its first Michelin star in 2023, and Pam was named Asia’s Best Female Chef 2024 by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. Diners now travel from all over the world to eat at the restaurant, which is redefining fine dining in Thailand.  

This month, Pam will be in India, travelling through Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai with her pop up menu, built in collaboration with Manisha Bhasin, corporate executivechef, ITC Hotels. With six courses in total, three done by each chef, the dinner aims to give diners a culinary interpretation of destinations and culture. A way to travel through memories and space with food.  

Discussing how she decided to open POTONG in her family’s heritage building, Pam says she explored the space with her father when she was looking for a location. “As we walked from floor to floor I had goosebumps. It is like a living museum. For me, this is the perfect place to show my craft, to really show what I have learnt over my years of cooking.” 

Pam says they fought hard to stand out, right from the beginning. “I think it is because we were nervous and scared of being the same as other restaurants, we worked on doing something super different. We try to create something that is very innovative and very experiential – that is what makes us what we are today. The awards come from us pushing boundaries, and from hard work.” 

The menu, like the space, is shaped by her family. “Most of my cooking is influenced by my mom. She usually cooks what my dad loves to eat – he’s half Australian and half Thai, while my mom is Chinese. So she would make noodles with pork gravy, a lot of pad thai, the best oxtail stew, but also dishes like bolognese.”