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Natnicha Boonlerd didn't choose to be a chef. “I've always believed that it was the kitchen that chose me. For me, cooking is synonymous of happiness”. Despite trying many artistic disciplines throughout her life, she felt a special connection with cooking. After training in traditional cooking schools, living the experience of participating in Masterchef and opening two restaurants in Thailand and Cambodia, Natnicha decided it was time to take a step further in her professional career as a chef: specializing at the CIB with the Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Culinary Techniques (formerly Postgraduate Diploma in Fire and Low Temperature). Nine months after graduating from the CIB, we talked to her about her professional career.
A disruptive horizon for Thai cuisine
Natnicha's entrepreneurial trajectory has left its mark on her homeland. First a coffee shop (Ploy's Cafe), then a traditional Thai restaurant (Baan Lalin) and now a place to brunch or dine with healthy, colourful, fresh and quality product dishes (AMI Brunch & Bubbles). But this seems to be just the beginning of something much bigger: in the coming weeks, Natnicha will open the doors of her first fine dining restaurant.
In the next few weeks I will open my first haute cuisine restaurant. I don't know the name yet, but I do know what I want to happen in there. Applying everything I know, I will create something new in Thai cuisine. My way of communicating with the diners is my food and the experience it gives them. And my message to them is that you can enjoy traditional Thai food by taking it to another level of sophistication, by applying techniques and incorporating products that are not strictly local. That is my hallmark. Very personal and at the same time very innovative.
There are many chefs from different parts of the world opening businesses in Thailand where we can find a mix of gastronomic cultures. But there is still no Thai chef who has done it before with Thai cuisine. Natnicha will be the first.
Although she acknowledges that her style of cooking requires a process of understanding and opening the mind to the local population, her message to them is clear: Thai cuisine is also that. Local ingredients and high quality products together with innovative techniques that are not currently taught in Thailand.
Cooking is evolving. In gastronomy everything changes day by day.
"Yes, let's do it!"
Natnicha's life has been marked by ambition and courage. And persistence. Chasing a dream until it is achieved.
After graduating in Hotel Management and studying Basic Cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu, she didn't find the opportunity to start her career in a kitchen and spent 5 years working as a flight attendant. In search of new experiences, she enrolled in the first edition of Masterchef Thailand, and that was undoubtedly what made her become interested in cooking again. She published a culinary book, opened two cafés, one in Bangkok and the other in Cambodja, and a Thai restaurant in the centre of Bangkok. Now she has been invited to participate in Masterchef as a chef of reference for a whole generation.
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After all, my perspective and my goal has changed: although it is a long road, my dream is to receive the 50 Best Restaurants in Asia recognition and to enter the top 50 Best Female Chef.
After 10 years in the kitchens, Natnicha felt that there was a kind of knowledge in gastronomy that she had not yet acquired. ‘I have experience and I have my own method in the kitchen, but I don't know if it is right or not. I feel I still don't know the why of some things. I am very interested in knowing the science behind gastronomy’.
And so, together with her friend and business partner Fendi, Natnicha decided to specialise in fire, molecular cooking and low temperature with the PEC-T Advanced Culinary Techniques programme.
The programme at the Culinary Institute of Barcelona fitted perfectly with what I was looking for. I explained my plans to my friend Fendi and proposed that we come together to train. I remember how she said yes almost with her eyes closed. ‘Yes, let's do it!’
The CIB, the place to open your mind
Natnicha is a CIBer and we are very proud to be able to explain it. As much as she is proud of the result of her training here.
I came to the CIB to learn more and to evolve my techniques and I left back for Thailand with a lot of knowledge. It is an experience that has had a great impact on my career. Now I want to share everything I have learned at the CIB with other Thai chefs and I am already applying this new knowledge in my cooking.
She recalls that during her time at the CIB ‘every day was a good day’. He highlights the diversity of the students with whom she shared a class. With the Territories sessions, she managed to soak up the culture and gastronomy of each of the places in the world and almost ‘literally travelled to each of those places’. What used to be a challenge at the CIB is now her daily routine: Natnicha leads teams of several people in her restaurant. Facing challenges with the other CIBers when she hardly knew them made her realise how essential it is to have good communication in the team, to work together and in the same direction.
The experience at the CIB has opened her mind, and this can be seen both in the way she conceives gastronomy and in the way she creates unique dishes in her kitchen.
For me this has been a major upgrade. My recommendation to all future CIB students is to open their minds. Open your mind because you are going to gain a lot of knowledge and be prepared to have a really fun few months.
The future of gastronomy: roots and storytelling
‘Smiling helps me a lot. If you smile, you manage to leave the problems behind’. Humans are a mirror of emotions. Just as we use body language to facilitate social relationships and the smile to convey happiness, Natnicha is very clear that the best way to communicate with her customers is through food. Her diners already know her style and her presentations. They recognise her hallmark in each of her dishes. This is how Natnicha manages to communicate with each one of them.
As Natnicha said, in gastronomy everything changes day by day. And although we can't predict what will happen tomorrow, we ask the same question we asked the CIB staff and the students of the DCS - Design, Creation and Strategy of Restaurant Business course: how do you imagine the future of gastronomy?
Right now we are going back to what we were, back to our roots. I am from Thailand and with my cuisine I want to show my roots. Nowadays it is not enough for a dish to be tasty. Storytelling is very important; who we are and where we come from is very important. What makes us different, what makes us more interesting is our tradition and our intention behind every dish.
When Natnicha thinks about her future, the prospect is hard work to one day be recognised by The World's 50 Best as one of the World's 50 Best Chefs. But the long road ahead is a path of opportunities and learning. For now, she will open her first haute cuisine restaurant, which will precede two more restaurants. The aim of this restaurant, she explained to us, is not to make a high financial profit, but to make her restaurant a place where she can teach and share everything she knows, and which will allow her to put into practice new techniques that will continue to bring her closer to the recognition she dreams of.
We have to take it step by step. I know it's a long road but I know that I will be able to do it if I accumulate enough experience. One person who won a Michelin Star said to me: ‘I didn't know how old I would get it, or how long it would take me to get it. But the moment it happened, I didn't care how old I was'. I imagine it's going to be a bit like that.
Being a female chef in Thailand
In her early years of work experience, Natnicha found herself in kitchens where there were only male executive chefs and women were only in the position of cooks. But those gaps have narrowed surprisingly quickly in Thailand. ‘Right now in Thailand we have 3 Michelin stars for female chefs. And that has really changed our mentality as a society. Having female chefs as role models is helping us a lot’.
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This improvement has also been accompanied by greater recognition of the chef profession in Thailand. The value society places on chefs has been increasing, as have salaries, working conditions and even enrolments in culinary and hospitality training.
Natnicha has also evolved and become a leader for her fellow chefs and a role model for many chefs who are just starting out in their culinary careers.
Leading a kitchen team is not easy. When I started working in this field, I was just looking for fun, for enjoyable experiences. And now I ask myself many more questions: what do I want for my team and for my future? How do I make my team happy? How do I make everyone feel part of the team? Every day there may be a problem, but when you accompany all the members in their process of improvement, with creative freedom and trying to make them work in the best conditions, you get us all to face our work with a smile on our faces. I think this is the best way to work as a team.
Natnicha was awarded as CIBest of her class. It is an award given by her own classmates and is given to the person who best represents the values of the CIB. Responsibility, transcendence, discipline and courage. That is Natnicha.
