Found within the eclectic South Austin neighborhood of Bouldin Creek is Thai Fresh, a gluten-free bakery, coffeehouse, vegan ice cream mecca, and, most importantly, Thai restaurant and learning center. Chef Jam Sanitchat built this culinary complex and teaching space piece by piece by expanding into neighboring spaces, forging relationships with local growers and producers, and adding new facets to her culinary repertoire as time and money allowed. The result is a wildly successful amalgam of food, beverages, and services that probably shouldn't work but somehow does.
Thai Fresh is the roadmap to that success. Follow Jam from her early days of cooking for friends during graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, to her popular farmers market stand, to her current establishment. Along the way, she taught thousands of people the art of cooking Thai cuisine, and fed eager crowds at countless cultural and community events. Discover why this collection of Jam's top-selling and most sought-after recipes, like Thai-Style Chicken and Waffle and The ULTIMATE Sauce--all stunningly captured by James Beard award-winning photographer Jody Horton--was requested by, and 100 percent funded by, her loyal community.
About the Author: Born and raised in Thailand, Jam Sanitchat hails from a family of skilled cooks. She learned the craft from her grandmothers and mother beginning at the age of five. Jam moved to the United States to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Texas, then fell in love with Austin and the local food culture. She has fed the community ever since--through her farmers market stand, her cooking classes, and her popular restaurant, Thai Fresh. Her dairy-free ice cream parlor, Gati, is set to open in 2020.
Kim Lane was the editor of the James Beard award-winning magazine Edible Austin for over a decade. A commentator for National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" and a contributor to Mothering magazine, Pregnancy magazine, Green Prints, and Salon and Salon's printed anthology Life as We Know It, Lane lives and works in Austin, Texas.
Jody Horton is an award-winning food and lifestyle photographer.
