Pichaya 'Pam' Soontornyanakij

Potong, Bangkok

Inspirational Thai chef serving up progressive, stimulating cuisine in a historic setting

Her Bangkok restaurant, Potong, has been open for less than five years. But over that period, Pichaya Soontornyanakij – widely known as Chef Pam – has become a standout international culinary figure. Having been named Asia’s Best Female Chef in 2024, the talented Thai has followed up in 2025 by securing one of her profession’s ultimate accolades: namely The World’s Best Female Chef Award.

In the process, Chef Pam becomes the first Asian to take this title – which is voted for by the 1,120-strong Academy of gastronomic experts spread across the globe – in the award’s 14-year history.

The chef’s rapid rise is built on secure foundations, with almost of 15 years of hard work and sacrifice behind her. Originally training to become a journalist, she turned to cooking and won a young chef award aged just 21, before moving to New York to study at the Culinary Institute of America and training under renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. She returned home, becoming a judge on Top Chef Thailand and establishing The Table restaurant and private dining experience.

It was in 2019, when her family’s 120-year-old Chinese herbal pharmacy building became vacant, that she found the location for Potong. Together with her husband and business partner, Tor Boonpiti, she took on an extensive renovation project to develop a multi-storey restaurant concept in the city’s Chinatown.

Through Potong’s tasting menu, she tells stories of her family’s unique heritage through some 20 courses of progressive Thai-Chinese cuisine, including her signature fragrant roast duck dish. The dining experience, which takes places on different floors of the historic space, seeks to stimulate the five senses, while simultaneously playing on – and creating – multiple memories.

Still just 35, Chef Pam is already empowering future generations of women: in 2024, she co-created the Women for Women scholarship, awarding a culinary internship at Potong with full financial backing to one young woman per year from an underprivileged, rural Thai background. With the global platform that this award provides, she will no doubt inspire and delight many more professionals, home cooks and discerning diners across the world.

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