Bangkok has long been renowned for its street food. But increasingly, gourmets are turning their attention to its high-end restaurants, helped by the likes of the Michelin guide and Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants awards. Leading the charge is a clutch of innovative, independent venues helmed by overseas-trained local chefs who are redefining what constitutes Thai food, elevating it to fine-dining status in the process.
One of the newest arrivals is Potong, a glamorous paean to the mixed Thai Chinese heritage of its founder Pichaya Utharntharm and the humming Chinatown district in which her forebears settled. Better known as Chef Pam, she conceived the idea for Potong after visiting the landmark 120-year-old Sino-Portuguese shophouse which now houses the restaurant with her father and grandfather; the building has belonged to four generations of their family,