[InC-terview] 'At Home With Phol' Celebrity Host, Phol Tantasathein!

One of my dreams has always been to reach audiences outside of Thailand so when I was approached by AFC, I was really excited. It started with Home Cooked Thailand which was more of a pilot platform, so the idea of At Home with Phol started from there. In the series, I share a mix of authentic and modern Thai recipes, I try to share my experiences as a Chef with the audience by adapting the recipes for those who want to cook at home.

When I decide on the recipes, it depends on the specific themes so if it’s focused on techniques, I will have dishes that require deep-frying, steaming, stir-frying or if it’s on proteins, I use chicken or pork. In each episode, there are 4 different dishes and with the dishes combined, it should complete one meal, from appetizer to main to dessert using different techniques. Another key factor in deciding the type of recipes is cost. I ensure the ingredients for the dishes are easy to find and not costly since I want to encourage home cooking!

When I started being interested in food, it was more of a hobby. I started with writing food and restaurant reviews and that’s when I met my friend and first cooking teacher, a Japanese chef I had interviewed. I was curious about how he cooked so I asked him to shop and cook with me when he was free and he gladly agreed so that’s when I started learning. I realized I really enjoyed cooking and went to a Thai cooking school then Cordon Bleu. What started as a hobby turned out to be a career! I am less focused on acting but I am still on TV but more of a TV cooking host than on stage. I still do try to be on TV shows every other year and on stage, in musicals and plays once a year when I have spare time so the viewers can see me in different spaces.

Photo Courtesy of: Asian Food Channel

ALL of it is important but it comes one by one. The first impression of a dish is the presentation but if you don’t have the right ingredients, the dish will not taste good. Even with the right ingredients, if you end up seasoning the dish too much that you can’t even taste your main ingredient anymore, your dish is ruined. The idea of less is more is crucial, eat chicken as a chicken or fish as a fish. So it’s really a combination of everything. Sometimes a dish looks bad but it tastes good but why let that happen.

Herbs & spices. The character of the food comes from the local ingredients each country has and the lifestyle in the country.

Rice or noodle. When I cook at home for myself, I love to do something that is quick and not time-consuming so it can be noodle or rice soup, or dry, stir fry depending on how I feel. I usually make a chili paste that I keep in a jar in the fridge so I can whip up something quick with it.

Honestly, it’s difficult. You cannot say there is one dish but there is something called Sam-rap – Thai food is not all about the omelets or fried fish or chili paste, but when Thai people eat it as a Sam-rap, you have various kinds of food, raw vegetables, with chili paste with some soup with some protein and with some egg that’s put together. The eating style is more sharing/family style because it cannot be completed within one dish.

Thai in terms of my career. For a lot of the cuisines out there, you can depend on machines but for Thai cuisine – you learn about the detailed procedure. The way you cook, you can spend half a day preparing and cooking the dish. The challenge is that I have to simplify the process and yet not ruin the dish.

Talk to your dishes. A very important aspect of cooking not just in Thai cuisine, but you have to learn to taste your dish. When you work with fresh ingredients, it’s essential to keep tasting. Different sauces, different materials and different ingredients from different seasons will taste different. It sounds strange but when you cook, you don’t always know if the heat is enough or if the meat is cooked and sometimes you cannot measure it with timing. Different stoves require different cooking times, even the material of your pans can affect the cooking time. You have to listen to your dishes by looking at the bubbles in the pan of oil or hear and smell the oil so communication is key. Don’t just stick to the cookbook or the recipe, it might not work for your kitchen.