Orawin Yimchalam learned to cook in her mother’s restaurant outside of Bangkok, Thailand. She went into hospitality and worked at a hotel inside the capital, where she was introduced to her second favorite cuisine, Italian food. She later worked on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean and then a Ritz-Carlton outside the San Francisco Bay Area. She got married and moved to Baton Rouge, where she opened her first restaurant. After the pandemic, she relocated to New Orleans and opened Thaihey NOLA in the French Quarter, and it has Italian accents, like a version of arancini with Thai flavors. This summer, she expanded with a Thai food stall at the St. Roch Market, and followed up two weeks ago with an Italian food stall called Padrona, which means “female boss” in Italian. For more information, visit strochmarket.com or @thaiheynola on Instagram.
Gambit: Why did you open a Thai stall at St. Roch Market?
Orawin Yimchalam: I like the concept of the market. You meet the local people, and they get to try different food. I have done that before at White Star Market in Baton Rouge. I did that before Covid. I started in January 2020, and two and a half months later White Star Market closed down.
I was looking at St. Roch Market several years ago to expand. It’s hard to find a (restaurant) location because it’s so much money to start up.
I wanted to expand because I need local people to get to know Thaihey. St. Roch Market didn’t have Thai food. I contacted Kevin (Pedeaux, who runs St. Roch) and did a tasting at Thaihey, and they loved it. So I said OK, let’s do this.
I opened in June. It’s almost the same concept as Thaihey NOLA, but a little different. I still have okra fries and arancini. I need those because my locals sometimes don’t want to drive to the French Quarter because of the parking. They’re happy to see me at the market.
We focus on seasonal things. We have okra fries and a catfish salad. We have barbecued pork ribs. We have the curry. We do noodles, but we can’t stir fry because we don’t have a wok here.
For appetizers, we do crawfish rangoons. Crab rangoons are very popular, and people already know about them, so I do a Louisiana twist.
For an entree, I make a Thai sloppy joe. Seven years ago on the Fourth of July, we had a barbecue, and I had a lot of buns left over. I had some burger meat. So I cooked it with Thai basil and then topped it with an egg fried sunny-side up and put it on a burger bun. I put some Thai spices in it. I call it Thai Slap Ya Moma.
We need customers to enjoy each (location). They can have fried catfish salad here, and then on another day they can have fried catfish with pumpkin curry at Thaihey NOLA (in the French Quarter).
It’s like a bistro menu at St. Roch. I like nice decorations and preparations. I enjoy doing that.
Gambit: How did you get interested in Italian food?
Yimchalam: In Bangkok, I worked at a hotel. I worked at the lobby bar, but the hotel had Thai and Italian food. I had to sell the food, so we had a training and tasted all the food. I also used to travel. My first trip to Europe, I went to Italy, France and Switzerland.
In Thailand, Italian food is popular. At the hotel was where I started to learn about international foods.
I like Italian food, so I started to cook it myself. I started cooking pasta all the time. There was an international market. I got garlic, basil and chili. When I had nothing to eat at my house, I’d have a pack of pasta and garlic, chili, basil, olive oil and white wine. I’d make that. It’s very basic, but delicious.
I traveled to Italy when I was working on a cruise ship. We went all over the Mediterranean. I had good pizza and lamb. I went to Naples and had seafood and buffalo mozzarella cheese. I went to Venice and got caprese, and it opened my world. I didn’t know Italy had the best tomatoes. So delicious. I was not a big fan of tomatoes, but when I ate them there, they were so sweet. Italian food is my second choice after Thai food.
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Gambit: What is on the Padrona menu?
Yimchalam: For the Italian stall, I have osso buco and risotto. I have eggplant Parmesan. It’s beautiful. I serve it with home-made marinara sauce and pomodoro sauce.
We have a risotto, and that’s seasonal. So I might play with crawfish or some other protein, or pumpkin when that’s in season.
I am going to have chicken Alfredo. I am still waiting on some imported things. I am going to have a big wheel of Parmesan and use the cheese with the Alfredo. I am keeping the dishes traditional but playing with the decoration. I keep everything fresh and keep it authentically Italian.
I had a crawfish panini for a Louisiana twist.
I haven’t added any Thai flavors, but I may. At the Thai food stall, I made yellow curry and served it with crab and shrimp ravioli.
Right now I do lemon gelato. When I am set up and everything is on track, I am going to do tiramisu. The menu can change when I have different inspirations.
It’s fun. I enjoy seeing people, talking to them and introducing the food. It’s not like keeping myself in the kitchen like before. Now I can see how people enjoy it.
Dining and Cooking