Chulalaxana (Chula)
Born: Bangkok, 1950
Mother Tongue: Thai
Grandchildren: Arabella, Mimi, Dolce, Murphy
What they call her: Grandma
I taught myself to cook when I was living in Hong Kong and working as a flight attendant. I was just 25 and we had to cook for ourselves in our free apartment. I would ask Chinese people on the roadside to show me how to cook fried rice in the Chinese way.
At the time I was working as a flight attendant for Cathay Pacific. There were only 25 Cathay Pacific Thai girls. There were more than 1200 applicants and I was one of the 25. I was so proud of myself. Of course I had a lot of makeup on but I was a model at the time. I think I got the job because of my smile - I gave big smiles to everyone because I didn’t know what else to do.
I was so happy and I came back home to tell my mother and my father I got the job but they weren’t happy. They said, “What’s wrong with you? You have four maids at home! You don’t have to do anything at all.”
I told them about all the other applicants and how I’d beaten them, that the Cathay airline uniform was designed by Pierre Balmain and that I wanted to travel. They didn’t want me to be serving people. I got accepted for three airlines but Cathay was three times the pay. We would have breakfast in Hong Kong, lunch in Singapore, dinner in Jakarta, Indonesia overnight then Sydney for two days and then come back. The first time I did this I slept for a full 24 hours after.
Contrary to my parents’ beliefs, flying was so glamorous back then. Everyone was smoking on the plane (now I think that’s disgusting). I had a cigarette holder. Can you imagine? Mostly we served steak. Lavish dinners. Everything was ready prepared. I just had to warm it in the galley.
I don’t get stressed when I’m cooking for lots of people, I’m happy. Being a good hostess comes from inside of you, you have to love cooking and want to share your made-up recipes. That’s why I host young Thai students who are at boarding school here in the UK. I’m the second guardian for the Thai Embassy and so once a month, these children - sometimes up to six - come to stay with me for the weekend. I cook them Thai food. The first student I had was 8 years old and he just sent me a business class ticket to come to his wedding. It’s like being a grandmother a second time around to so many children.
Six years ago I got breast cancer. I had a mastectomy and changed my diet to be more healthy and I began making up my own recipes. I use brown rice or if it has to be white, then I use basmati because it grows with minerals. If I make Pad Thai I never add sugar and I slice carrots to use instead of the noodles. Sometimes I slice raw papaya instead of noodles. People love it. Most people in Bangkok eat beef and pork Penang but I prefer fish. That’s why I am making you salmon penang. I tested all different kinds of fish like plaice and halibut for this recipe but salmon is the best.
When the cancer came, I thought I was going to die. I had six rounds of chemo. The third and fourth were horrible and I couldn’t eat anything at all. It took me half an hour to eat one teaspoon of plain rice. Even water was very bitter tasting. Then one of my doctors said, “Ok Chula, if you cannot drink water you must have ice cream.” I swear I survived on chocolate ice cream and pineapple juice.
I’m healthy now and I think, just be nice to people because you don’t know when you’re going to die. Try and do something to make people happy. It’s why I make my healthy Thai recipes - I have about 20 and I share them with people who come to my home.
