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"You need to eat a lot, that's my tip," laughs Narin 'Jack' Kulasai when I ask him about ways to ace Thai cooking at home.
"If you like Thai food, eat lots of it and you'll remember the taste. Start with something you've eaten somewhere else and adapt the flavour the way you like. It's just like singing a song with your own voice."
Kulasai, who grew up in Central Thailand, worked alongside David Thompson in Bangkok, before joining Bennelong and Long Chim in Sydney.
He credits his grandma for igniting his love of cooking: "The first time I went into her kitchen, it's not because I liked cooking, it's because I loved to eat. One time, she was very busy and wanted me to do something for her, so I started cooking because she forced me to help her. But I learned a lot," he says.
He opened in 2022 to showcase family-style Thai cuisine. The hatted restaurant is considered one of Sydney's best.
Kulasai believes most people can cook Thai dishes at home if they know a few basic techniques. "We tend to put a lot of ingredients into one dish so if you've never cooked Thai food and you see the ingredient list, you might think it looks hard, but it's really not," he explains.
It's just like singing a song with your own voice.
"When you cook any food, you need basic seasoning. In Thai cuisine, it's fish sauce, palm sugar, oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, and maybe some chilli sauce. And if you like northeastern Thai cuisine," he says.
Most supermarkets in Australia stock these ingredients, and you can find specialty ones at Thai grocers. In Sydney, Kulasai likes and where he can find pantry staples and fresh produce.
Having named his restaurant Porkfat, there's no doubt that lard is a crucial tool in his cooking arsenal.
"Pork fat is my favourite thing. Lard is the main cooking fat in my restaurant. My grandma used to cook almost everything with it, and I was very impressed with the intensity of flavours," he explains. "So I talked to Tanya, my partner, and said, 'Why don't we use this technique at the restaurant and why not name the restaurant Porkfat?'."
Pork fat is my favourite thing.
The chef says you'll notice the flavours of your dishes pop once you start using it, and he promises : "If my grandma can do it, anyone can do it."
Kulasai's recommendations
Kulasai recommends making the following Thai dishes:
Cook his recipes
Sour orange curry with tiger prawns
Extra crispy pork crackling
Crispy pork crackling is the highlight of many Thai dishes.
"Traditionally, we'd leave the crackling under the sun to leave the moisture to evaporate," Kulasai explains.
But these days, he makes sure that the pork skin is dry before covering it with salt, and leaving it in the fridge overnight. Once the skin dries out, he fries it in hot oil until it puffs up.
He then eats it with holy basil and a fried egg, in a stir fry, or as a snack, dipping the pieces in .
