Chef Fah
Creativity, skill, technique, the intuitive understanding of the spectrum of flavors…
these are but a few of the requirements of a truly innovative culinary mastermind,
and Chef Fah has them all. It isn’t just about creating beautiful pieces of delicious
art, it’s about dedication, passion, and desire. It is this very same dedication
and passion that motivates and keeps people in the highly competitive restaurant
business.
Few people understand the brutal hours and hurdles restaurateurs have to endure
to make their business a success. One common hurdle chefs have to face is serving
what the public expects, versus what they actually ordered.
A purist at heart, Chef Fah refuses to bow to common myths about fine cuisine created
by unscrupulous restaurants, something that all food connoisseurs can appreciate.
A chef’s work isn’t a success until the plates
comes back empty.
She would rather brace for the onslaught of complaints from misinformed people,
than serve anything that is not considered fine cuisine by the culinary world. When
asked why she does not try to pass off red fish as red snapper like so many other
restaurants do, she would only say that it would go against her values as a chef
to serve anything other than true red snapper.
In keeping with her high standards and values, Chef Fah carefully inspects every
plate that comes back to her kitchen with the same scrutiny as when the plates first
went out. Why? A chef’s work isn’t a success until the plates comes back empty.
Chef Fah is ever mindful of this fact because not only is it a indicator of how
successful her dishes are, but also because she derives joy with every returning
empty plate as any true chef would. To put it simply, it makes the long exhausting
hours worthwhile.
...her fondest childhood memory was sneaking
out during naptime to watch the cooks in the school’s busy kitchen.
Her reverence for the culinary arts began long before she even realized it. As a
young child growing up in the rolling green hills of Thailand, her fondest childhood
memory was sneaking out during naptime to watch the cooks in the school’s busy kitchen.
It was there that she delighted in watching the cooks in their white aprons working
in synchrony while stirring steaming vats of boiling soups and hearing the chop,
chop, chop of steel knives slicing through bright green vegetables with amazing
speed.
She didn’t start thinking about pursuing a career in the culinary arts until she
came to the United States. Originally she came to pursue a career in business, but
much to her family’s dismay she decided to take a gamble and pursue what she truly
loved: cooking, creating, and making edible art. From her passion, Lemongrass Café
was born.
A dish at Lemongrass Café is not just a tasty dish that’s pretty to look at. It’s
a manifestation of Chef Fah’s creative energies, her joy of cooking, her refined
culinary skill to both tease and please the palette, her refusal to serve anything
that doesn’t meet the high refined standards set by the culinary world. Lemongrass
guests are just but a few people who are just lucky enough to sample the fruits
of her labor.
Chef Fah attended the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, NY where
she was the Assistant Chef. She also received intense training under the wing of
Chef Tim Keating at the Four Seasons of Houston. Other restaurants she has trained
at include Brennan’s of Houston and Rustic Oak in Houston, TX, and at The Dynasty
in Temple, TX.