Meet the chef: Tanatat ‘Alex’ Kamsrijan
Title: Executive chef, Bhan Thai restaurant.
Age: 43.
Hometown: Thailand.
Who or what was your first cooking influence? My mom. ... Marriage, monkhood (celebration), somebody died, she’d cook for everyone. I’d watch her.
What was the first thing you ever cooked or baked? I cook steamed rice with charcoal. ... Steamed vegetables, sauce for vegetables and grilled barbecue fish, something like that.
What was your first food-related job? Sunset Village in Thailand. First cooking job. 1995.
What was something important that a fellow chef taught you? (A fellow Thai chef) taught me how to cook for American people.
What is the Alex Kamsrijan style? Real Thai but not hot like Thai people eat. Like medium.
Describe a dish you created. Crispy duck. Make it with herbs, put it in the oven so it will cook through. After that, take bone and everything out and deep fry until crispy and make a sauce like a tamarind sauce (for) the top.
What do you cook or bake at home, if anything? For myself? I like fish. Some salmon, grilled, baked. Any kind. It’s good for me. Fish oil is good for your body.
What’s your least favorite ingredient? Cinnamon. Because in Thailand culture they use it to cook with the meat. Over here they put it in dessert. I like the dessert in here, but take the cinnamon out. But I can eat cinnamon in stewed pork, stewed beef, stewed chicken.
Bhan Thai is at 1324 Peabody; 272-1538.
Contact Michael Donahue at 529-2797 or e-mail donahue@commercialappeal.com.
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