Why Chef Big Believes Great Thai Food Begins with Curiosity
At ChomSindh inside Amari Bangkok, Chef Big is obsessed with one question:
What makes people remember a dish?
Not photograph it. Not post it online. Actually remember it.
For Executive Sous Chef Viroon Seesod, better known as Chef Big, the answer is rarely luxury ingredients or complicated techniques. It is usually something much more personal. A smell that reminds someone of home. A flavour they have not tasted since childhood. A recipe prepared the way it used to be decades ago.
That obsession shapes the entire identity of ChomSindh, the Thai restaurant known for seafood inspired dishes from Thailand’s rivers and seas.
But strangely, Chef Big almost never became a chef at all.
Before entering professional kitchens, he worked in product development after studying Food Science at university. His job was to create recipes for factories and turn them into products that could be mass produced. Every day followed the same routine.
“Create a product. Test it. Adjust it. Repeat,” he recalls.
Technically, he was successful.
Emotionally, he was miserable.
“I realised I could not sit waiting for instructions every day,” he says.
So at 25, long after many chefs had already built years of kitchen experience, he quit and started over completely.
That decision still shapes the way he cooks today. Chef Big dislikes comfort. The moment something feels too familiar, he starts searching for new flavours, techniques, and ideas. Over the years, he moved through French fine dining, hotel breakfast operations, Italian chef’s tables, cocktail bars, and Thai seafood cuisine.
Even now, he still enters the kitchen himself whenever ChomSindh launches new promotions.
“I still like testing recipes myself,” he says. “It is probably a habit from my product development days.”
That curiosity appears everywhere on the menu.
Take ChomSindh’s seafood porridge. Unlike many restaurants that build seafood porridge around fish bones, Chef Big starts with vegetable stock, then layers flavour gradually using dried shrimp and seafood to create depth without heaviness.
Or the restaurant’s tiger prawn dish, where the prawns are carefully cooked in hot oil just long enough for the shell to tighten before being finished in sauce. Crispy lemongrass is added for texture at the end.
Even desserts receive the same attention. One of the restaurant’s highlights is som chun, a rare old Thai dessert scented with bitter orange water and topped with fragrant citrus peel. Chef Big says he hopes to eventually adapt the recipe further using more fresh seasonal fruit instead of relying on preserved ingredients.
For him, improving food never really stops.
“When you use the proper traditional method, the taste becomes completely different,” he says.
That philosophy also explains why Chef Big dislikes putting strict labels on his cooking. He does not describe himself as an authentic chef or a fusion chef.
“I think of myself as a borderless cuisine chef,” he says. “Food from every country connects together.”
It is not just a marketing phrase. He genuinely believes techniques from different cuisines can strengthen Thai food rather than weaken it. French sauce making taught him patience. Indian chefs taught him how spice and acidity create balance. Hotel dining taught him how different guests search for different experiences.
“If the concept changes, the recipe should change too,” he explains. “Comfort food, fine dining, luxury dining, they should all feel different.”
That mindset helped shape ChomSindh into a restaurant that feels rooted in Thai flavours while still surprisingly modern.
Some dishes are deeply nostalgic. Others reinterpret forgotten recipes. Some are designed simply to make people curious.
Because for Chef Big, curiosity matters more than trends.
It is why he still spends his free time researching old recipes and testing original cooking methods at home. It is why he still becomes excited discovering unfamiliar food from other countries. And it is why, after years in kitchens, he still talks about food less like a business and more like a puzzle he wants to keep solving.
“Food connects everything,” he says.
At ChomSindh, that belief appears in every bowl of porridge, every sauce, and every recipe that carries both memory and reinvention onto the plate.
Story: Sue Rattanamahattana • Photography: Poonsawat Sudtama
ABOUT HEARTMADE
Created to celebrate the 60th anniversary of ONYX Hospitality Group, Heartmade is a series of heartfelt stories inspired by the people who make every stay memorable, from dedicated team members to cherished guests across Amari, OZO, Shama, Oriental Residence, as well as our spa and dining brands.
Through personal memories, meaningful connections, and moments of genuine care, the series celebrates the warmth and spirit of hospitality that have brought people together for six decades. Stay tuned for more inspiring stories from the Heartmade series.