Recipes from the late, great Amy Chanta (2024)

Palisa Anderson shares some of her favourite dishes from her late mother.

Oct 29, 2021 3:10am

"There are many stories you can tell about Amy Chanta, the beloved Sydney restaurateur who helped Australians fall in love with Thai cuisine," writes Lee Tran Lam in Gourmet Traveller's tribute to the late chef. Chanta, who passed away in March 2020, was formative in shaping the Sydney's Thai food scene in its early days, and after establishing her first Chat Thai restaurant in 1989, went on to build a restaurant empire that has become synonymous with Thai hospitality and cuisine in the city.

But she was also a migrant, a single mother, who scraped together enough money as a garment outworker to bring her children from Thailand to Sydney in the 1980s. Her daughter, Palisa Anderson, would eventually enter the family business, establishing the Thai-café mash-up that is Boon Café, and Byron Bay property Boon Luck Farm. Here, Anderson combines food and family, and shares some of her favourite recipes from, and stories about, her late mother.

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Padt cha bpla (stir-fried fish with holy basil, wild ginger and green peppercorns)
"I think this stir-fry would be my mum's desert island dish," says Anderson. "Green peppercorns, grachai (wild ginger) and apple eggplants were among the first crops I planted when we started Boon Luck Farm six years ago."

Photo: Elise Hassey

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Bpla neung manow (steamed fish with spicy chilli and lime dressing)
"When we ate whole fish my mum would always leave the meaty bits for me and take the head for herself, which I thought at the time was a loving sacrifice. But now I know the head holds the sweetest and most tender bits," says Anderson. "I imagine this to be the secret self-care baton that mothers pass on to each other through the ages."

Photo: Elise Hassey

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Khao padt bpla khem (mackerel fried rice)
"This salted mackerel version of crab fried rice was my mum's go-to dish when she craved rice," says Anderson. "Of the many lessons I learnt about Thai food from my mother, the one recurring and valuable tutelage is that sometimes simple really is best."

Photo: Elise Hassey

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Padt pedt gai (stir-fried spicy chicken wings and bamboo shoots)
"On our many R&D trips to Thailand over the decades, Mum's preferred eateries were always the humble raan khao gaeng, which loosely translates to rice and curry shop," says Anderson. "She always chose the same thing shop to shop, setting the bar of her favourite institutions based on these favourites of hers."

Photo: Elise Hassey

Recipes from the late, great Amy Chanta (2024)

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