Life as a meal

Veteran chef Supamongkon 'Art' Supapipat is challenging himself as he steps back into the heat of the kitchen

- STORY: ATIYA ACHAKULWISUT

A national team swimmer, a pioneer of the Chef's Table private dining experience, a celebrity chef who has served as judge and head chef trainer on popular cooking shows as Top Chef Thailand and Restaurant War Thailand, veteran chef Supamongkon Supapipat, better known as chef Art, is under fire. He is returning to an intense, high-stakes culinary contest, but trading the judge's chair for the kitchen's heat in Iron Chef Thailand.

If life were a meal, chef Art's would be an intensely flavoured, multi-course experience. His life is a culinary journey that shows how the materials — his talents and experiences — have been culled, carefully aged, reduced and expertly rendered, resulting in increasingly complex flavours that are constantly expanding and deepening.

MINUTE STEAK AND FRIED EGGS

Chef Art described his early life as a simple dish — fresh, quality ingredients that were cut, fried or grilled as they were, requiring no complicated procedures.

"I would say it was like a minute steak and fried eggs," chef Art recalled. "For an athlete, time matters most. We could not afford to linger over food. Meals were 15-20 minute affairs, simply cooked and not elaborately prepared."

Growing up with five brothers — all of them athletes — chef Art remembers his mother constantly cooking up a storm. She was a great cook and his father loved eating. Food, therefore, has been an inherent part of his life as far back as he can remember.

As a swimmer, success came early and rather easily for chef Art. He broke the national record at that time and was enlisted to the national team after training for only nine months. He then received a scholarship to study and train at a high school in Florida.

The bitterness of failure, however, followed just as quickly. Despite promising performances during training, chef Art could not break through in competitions. The furthest he could go was a bronze medal at the SEA Games.