Originally from central Thailand, Chef PaTA moved to the northen region of Thailand in 1983, where she continues to call her home. Her foray into the industry began over thirty years ago, when she opened a restaurant offering traditional Thai dishes that were meat based.

A series of personal hardships drove her to spirituality, and Chef PaTA made the decision to practice Buddhism and Dhamma seriously. She went into a retreat at Nirotharam Temple, a women-only temple. The experience turned her life around and she was determined to share the benefits of what she had learnt with others through her cooking.

A strict vegetarian, Chef PaTA designed her Thai menus and recipes around vegetables, experimenting with herbs and fungi to elevate the taste of her dishes. She sees her cooking as a kind of meditation, and her food preparation as a kind of art, making her dishes as tasty, as attractive and  as authentic as possible.

Chef PaTA began to build a name for herself and was called upon to manage and organize events. The “Kad Mua” concept was born, offering a traditional market setting as a base for a buffet that she would match in traditional arts and crafts.

Most recently she was called upon to work closely with the revered Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn to design a product based on mushrooms that local communities could create sustainable businesses from.

Chef PaTA continues to practice Buddhism and founded her own temple 9 years ago, buying land north of Chiang Mai and giving the land over to a community of monks. Very much a traditional Thai Buddhist temple, she directs the profits from her work to the development of this temple and promotion of Buddhism and meditation, extolling the benefits of living a good life and of sharing and giving.