IF YOU’RE TALKING THAI FOOD AND TORONTO, the name Nuit Regular will surely pass your lips.
Chef Nuit Regular is co-owner and executive chef of PAI Northern Thai Kitchen, Kiin, Sabai Sabai, SukhoThai — exceptional restaurants that have graced many of the city’s best-of lists.
Her other awards and recognition include the government of Thailand’s prestigious Thai Select Signature designation for authenticity in her restaurants, and she has been featured alongside the likes of Rob Gentile, Susur Lee and Rob Feenie in the rotating panel of chef judges on Food Network Canada’s popular show Wall of Chefs.
Regular’s journey to becoming one of Canada’s recognizable chefs began in the early 2000s with the opening of The Curry Shack in the small town of Pai in Northern Thailand. When she arrived in Toronto in 2006 to complete her nursing accreditation, she found Thai food in her adoptive city woefully lacking.
So, in 2008 she opened SukhoThai — and the modest outpost on a gritty stretch of THE AWARDS Parliament Street soon snowballed into arguably Toronto’s favourite Thai food franchise.
“I didn’t have many expectations when I moved into the food industry,” she says. “I just wanted to cook great food and share my Thai cuisine and Thai culture with others.”
Throughout the pandemic, as so many restaurants struggled to survive, Regular did more than persevered. In November 2020 she opened PAI Uptown, which quickly became a popular takeout spot, with its marketplace purveying Thai ingredients. Meanwhile, her pad Thai, pad gra prow and gaeng phed gai made it onto the offerings of Chefdrop, the Toronto-based luxe meal kit prep and delivery hub that features dishes from iconic chefs like Vikram Vij and Mark McEwan. Regular is currently looking at opportunities in catering and private events, cooking at food hubs and offering her classics from food trucks in the GTA and beyond.
For her considerable accomplishments to date and what is destined to come, American Express wishes to present chef Nuit Regular with the American Express Award for Business Leadership.
Photos by Sarah Annand
Share: Facebook, X (Formerly Twitter)