74-year-old Thai woman received a Michelin star for the delicious street food she makes in a small place

Jay Fai is a 74-year-old Thai woman who spends her days doing what she loves most: cooking. Her parents, Chinese migrants, arrived in Thailand in search of better opportunities, dedicating themselves to selling street food, an activity in which she took her first steps. She has dealt with difficult situations, such as losing her first business to a fire. But her dedication and her daily sacrifice allowed her to open, 40 years ago, the local street food restaurant that, in 2018, received a prestigious Michelin star.

O awesome.club got to know Jay’s story and how his dishes, made with love and care, earned him one of the most important distinctions in gastronomy.

Before success, Jay had to endure all kinds of hardships, because his family didn’t have enough resources. From an early age, she worked as hard as she could to help her parents and seven siblings. However, she continued to study and prepare, until she opened a sewing business. Things were going well until a fire put an end to everything. Although she tried to work in other stores, she was not very successful and started to get depressed.

But despite his state of mind, Jay started working with his parents at a street food cart. At that moment, he realized that when he was in the kitchen, he was happiest. So he began to observe in detail all the processes of preparing the dishes, which allowed him to develop his own style and open his own restaurant.

What distinguishes it from the others is the fact that it buys fresh seafood in large quantities, which it only prepares by steaming it instead of boiling it, as most do. She also takes great care with the quality of her ingredients and serves hearty, neat dishes that taste exquisite. Thanks to this, Jay gained fame in his city, and then all over the world. The most requested dish? The crab omelette, which costs $30.

In 1980, at the age of over 30, Jay began to implement everything he learned from his parents in his own restaurant. Today, the place is considered one of the best in the world, according to none other than the Michelin Guide, which awarded it one of its prized stars. The fame that came later also brought him criticism, because it is difficult to get food on site: you have to book in advance, wait in line for 4 hours and, sometimes, pay large sums of money, something that seems contradictory in a country where the food has very cheap prices.

Jay’s restaurant is small and has a few chairs for diners. The kitchen is inside the space where she is also responsible for preparing the dishes. The world first heard of Jay in 1999, thanks to a publication by a Bangkok food critic who called his food “a masterpiece”. In 2018, famous American businesswoman, author and television presenter Martha Stewart named it “one of the best cooks in Thailand”, after visiting the place, which she is now a fan of.

The star that recognized Jay’s work was awarded in the inaugural 2018 edition of the Michelin Guide to Bangkok, published in 2019. In this way, Jay’s restaurant joins high street venues in Hong Kong and Singapore that have also been recognized by the prestigious gastronomic guide.

When asked if she would expand her business to take in new customers, she said no, because she thinks she has enough. Even if your street food restaurant is small (it has 6 tables), the flow of people is very large and sometimes you have to join tables for up to 10 people. “In the first seven days after receiving the star last year, I lost 10 kg, but now I know when to eat, when to go to the bathroom, how to prepare myself for the day. I do not stop working from 2 pm until 1 am, ”she said in the same interview.

The Michelin Guide is a prestigious publication that recognizes the best chefs from around the world. Earning your stars is difficult as the criteria are very demanding. Normally, the guide rewards exclusive restaurants, but in recent years this has changed.

However, the Thai woman expressed that she doesn’t want to turn her business into an empire and doesn’t want her children to take over when she can no longer do so. “This is very difficult work, and I have already earned enough to send them to study abroad… When I decide not to do more, the business will simply run out,” she said.

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