The owners of Passionate Chiang Mai have always had a love-affair with cooking and for that matter food in general. I heard many heart-warming stories from them about family time spent perfecting recipes, sharing ideas and swapping stories. This was a big part of both their early family lives.
Then when an unexpected opportunity came up to start a new life adventure in Chiang Mai Thailand, their thoughts turned to what they would do for a living when they arrived. They had the opportunity to do many things that would have potentially earnt them much more money, but they decided instead to follow their passion for food. They loved the feeling of preparing food for others to enjoy, as they had experienced with their families growing up.
The early business planning began and “Passionate Chiang Mai” was born in the middle of 2014. It was only natural that the restaurant be named after their common passion for food that started their dream.
Early on they experimented with a combination of buffet, barbeque style, and individual dishes, mainly to try and find out what meals and styles of food their customers truly loved best.
What became quickly clear was that what their loyal customers loved most of all were their shared-family recipes. These recipes lovingly gathered over many years from sharing food ideas and laughing over food preparation in kitchens with their extended family. The same recipes that had started their dream were now becoming part of their history.
As the restaurant became more popular they extended their menu to include local and international Asian dishes to cater for different tastes, always seeking out authentic recipes and testing new ideas till they perfected each meal. Only then would the recipes be added to their official menu.
This extensive list of recipes from different Asian nations was causing a problem in one way. The customers’ had trouble describing the varied menu Passionate Chiang Mai was creating. It wasn’t just authentic Chinese, or Singaporean classics, or Thai food etc. ‘Asian Fusion’ was the natural explanation for their varied menu, and this fast became an integral part of their growing brand.
Most of any profits were being put straight back into the business. Improving the décor, painting, decorating and expanding to a second floor, and building a second kitchen to speed up food delivery to their customers in the very busy times were just a few of the improvements.
They have a lot more ideas planned for their restaurant, but they are still firmly committed to the primary mission statement they envisaged when first starting out on their dream.
“To share our love of food with anyone who graces our restaurant, and make sure we go the extra mile to ensure our customers not only enjoy great food, but build great memories like the ones we had had growing up”.
Seems they are on the right track judging by the comments from their customers.