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Top Thai
restaurant Saran Rom in Chelsea is the fifth in Kobchok
Ngoeypaiboon's Siam Food Gallery Group which started in the nineties.
Kobchok Saran
Rom to his Siam Food Gallery Group with an eye to conveying his
patrons from the edge of the Thames to the banks of the Chao Phya.
There is teakwood panelling, royal portraits and gorgeous porcelain
and lanterns.
Kobchok is the
epitome of the successful "accidental restaurateur". He
came to Britain in 1989, a 23-year-old student, washed dishes, waited
at tables, cooked, gardened, decorated, delivered and even caught rats.
His next move
was to open a restaurant. Pu's Brasserie, as it was called, remains a
favourite haunt for young Thais as well as locals.
"I wanted
something between a restaurant and cafe, so I called it a brasserie -
with karaoke. My customers found it different from other Thai
restaurants, which usually have sarong-clad waitresses. Our staff
went modern with polo shirts." Pu's debut diner was in fact so
popular that other Thai restaurateurs came from Chicago and Australia
to see how he did it.
In 1997 he
replicated his success with Thai Upon Thames in of Richmond, followed
by Siam Food Gallery, which opened in 2000 in Esher, Surrey. It's an
upmarket place with a traditional Thai ambience - bamboo tables and
chairs, for instance - to suit a clientele of soccer and showbiz celebrities.
Siam Food
Gallery soon had a sister branch in Virginia Water, Surrey, which
exudes the restful calm of a Chiang Mai forest and now Saran Rom has
joined the group celebrating Royal Thai cuisine.
Saran Rom is
by far the most ambitious endeavour, and matching the high overheads
is a significant investment in kitchen talent: executive chef Yupa
Sondhisap, who spent 25 years at the Oriental in Bangkok, and sous
chef Bhithak Srimaithong from Chiang Mai's Mandarin Oriental Dhara
Dhevi Resort.
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