What makes Thai cuisine genuine? Many things, says Sila Donaldson, whose business – Thai Taste Homemade – is all about sharing her love for her home country’s signature dishes.
Donaldson was working for a local Thai restaurant two years ago when she decided to strike out on her own as a personal chef. In addition to the more family-friendly schedule, she says the move gave her the freedom to prepare food her way.
“I wanted to be able to cook what I feel (Thai food) should be and look like,” the native of Thailand says, and by the end of 2022, her enterprise had taken off.
Donaldson creates homecooked, customized Thai meals for her clients. They include one appetizer, two entrées, and a dessert, using vegetables and herbs from her home’s garden in northern Vanderburgh County.
She prepares five varieties of curry – yellow, green, massamun, panang chicken, and red – all of which she says are true to authentic Thai cooking.
Entrées include stir fry such as pad kra pao and garlic and black pepper, both of which come with a choice of meat; a sweet and sour chicken stir fry with pineapple; or a chicken and cashew blend.
Some of Donaldson’s recipes also incorporate larb, a flavorful Thai meat salad prepared with fresh herbs. Larb “is so good, very refreshing, and easy to make … and people just love it,” she says.
Donaldson can prepare a specified meal for as many as 15 people; for larger dinner parties, it becomes buffet-style.
The other part of her business – about 30 percent, she says – is personalized cooking classes. She says she’ll work with students on whatever they would like to learn from her menu.
Donaldson says classes are always eager to soak up her knowledge, and students usually prefer instruction to be hands-on, “from chopping vegetables to the finished dish.”
The success of Thai Taste Homemade has Donaldson pondering some other ideas, such as her own small café in the McCutchanville area, where she and her husband, Nick, live with their two children, aged 13 and 5.
Donaldson says she loves bringing the tastes of Thailand to Southwest Indiana, and she notes that visuals matter, too — her dishes are pretty as well as delicious.
“Authentic Thai is about the ingredients, and the way you’re cooking them,” she says, “and the flavor, and how it looks.”
