As well as being a brilliant cook, Thailand-born Chariya Khattiyot is a master coffee roaster with designs on a restaurant empire. She tells Kerry Fowler about her grandfather’s enduring influence, why she loves food markets and the cheerful philosophy that sustains her
I grew up in Northern Thailand, which is all about mountains, hiking and forests.
It was magical for me. I grew up with my grandad and we were poor. He was a barber and worked every day just to raise me. I was always happy with what we had: we never compared ourselves with anybody. My grandad only had one story that he used to tell me, but I don’t think it was really good for children. It was about ghosts and black magic…
I treat cooking like art. I just enjoy it so much. I never follow recipes; I write my own. I can see the image of the dish in my head – the colour of the plates, the serving bowls – so then I draw it. Cooking for me is experimental. You try something, you like it, you keep it. If you don’t like it, you change it.
Food culture is a big thing in Thailand. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen growing up. My mum taught me to make omelettes when I was about four and I loved playing kitchen. I used to pretend I was running a restaurant or making food on TV! Maybe somehow I was born to it.
I play a lot of computer games – maybe too many!
I am not a going-out person. I enjoy making my own characters, making them fly… It’s like another life and it relaxes me, stops me thinking about work or anything stressful. My other half is the same – we play a lot of computer games together and love watching sci-fi and action fantasy films.
In Thailand, we grew vegetables and herbs and had one chicken that laid eggs every day, so that was good! We went to the local market to shop, never supermarkets. Food was always fresh. I still love markets. It’s my favourite thing: touching things, browsing.
Every time I cooked on MasterChef, I could see my grandad standing beside me, smiling. Bless him, he didn’t really cook complicated food, it would just be something we’d find at the market – we didn’t eat anything expensive. The beauty of it was that they were simple ingredients that he made into something delicious.
I have tunnel vision. If I want to do something I want to give it 100 per cent. It’s a useful skill for everything I do – whether it’s playing table tennis or roasting the beans for my coffee
