Women power at Dusit

It was just fitting that in a hotel founded by a pioneering Thai woman, two visionary women Chef Watcharaphon “Ja” Yongbanthom of award-winning Benjarong Manila and Chef Pichaya “Pam” Soontornyanakij, recently named World’s Best Female Chef 2025 by 50 Best and chef-owner of the Michelin-starred Restaurant POTONG in Bangkok, flexed their culinary skills in a gastronomic collaboration at the Dusit Thani Manila.

- JOANNE RAE M. RAMIREZ

Before the dinner at the Benjarong (which literally means “five colors” and refers to traditional Thai porcelain) started, I asked Chef Pam, who was so relaxed despite the meticulous preparations for the eight-course dinner, Manila Calls, Bangkok Answers, how it feels to be the World’s Best Female Chef and the first Asian to receive the accolade?

“Very honored and very humbled,” she said. “And I feel like I have to inspire other female chefs as well.” The lovely Chef Pam, Asia’s Best Female Chef the previous year, has been to Manila several times.

Chef Ja, for her part said she was “excited and very happy” to work with Chef Pam.

Dusit Thani was founded by a woman

Thanpuying Chanut Piyaoui, established Dusit International in 1948 and opened her first property in Bangkok, Princess Hotel, in 1949. It was one of the first properties in the city to feature a swimming pool, an elevator, and air conditioning. Determined to open a five-star hotel offering luxury hospitality with a distinctively Thai touch, in 1970 she opened the flagship Dusit Thani Bangkok — then the city’s tallest, grandest building — which has been a true icon ever since, like its founder, whom I once had the privilege of interviewing.

Dusit Thani Manila (formerly Dusit Hotel Nikko Manila) took its first bow in 2008, the flagship of Dusit in the Philippines.