Catherine Whyte talks to Thailand’s culinary queen of compassion, serving up hope from her local restaurant
Not every chef can claim an excellence in culinary innovation matched by a commitment to social reform. Surapee Mudita Karnasuta – widely acclaimed as the Mother of Thai Cooking – is one of the few who can.
One of the first people to open a Thai restaurant in Europe, she later founded The Mudita Trust to help prevent child prostitution in her homeland. And this month her Amazing Thailand Festival – the largest of its kind in the UK – comes to Secretts Garden Centre at Milford. But when I call her at The Hamilton Arms, her pub/restaurant in the tiny village of Stedham, West Sussex, the conversation turns immediately to food.
“I came into the restaurant business by accident, really. In Thailand, I was brought up in such a way that I didn’t want to do anything,” laughs Mudita, as she is commonly known.
It is a reference to her privileged background: her mother was of aristocratic Thai stock, her uncle the Thai Ambassador in London.
“When I came to England, I worked for Laura Ashley for a while, and nobody knew what (sic) Thailand was. So I thought: ‘I have to promote my country.’ I started with the restaurant because I couldn’t do anything else!”
And so, on a narrow side street in the affluent Kensington of 1970, The Siam quietly opened its doors.
“It was so difficult back then,” reflects Mudita. “You couldn’t get any of the ingredients over here, so we had to ship them in once a month. The fresh herbs were flown over every two weeks.”
Everything changed within months, however, with the opening of her second restaurant, Busabong, on the bustling Fulham Road.
“This one was much bigger, so we were able to do all sorts of Thai entertainment, such as dancing, Thai boxing and sword fighting.”
It sounds quite the spectacle. These days, of course, punters need rather less persuasion to turn Thai in their dining habits, with green curry and Pad Thai as much a part of England as royalty, roast beef and Stonehenge.
Not that this constitutes progress, in Mudita’s more elevated book.
“Yes, Thai food is everywhere now, but a lot of the restaurants cook fusion,” she says disparagingly. “I don’t do that. I keep to the real Thai food.”
No Wagamamas for Mudita, then. Now her purist philosophies have prompted her – in her 80th year – to pen a volume entitled Nam Pla Prik, after the ubiquitous fish and chilli sauce found on every Thai table. Part autobiography, the book serves as an antidote to the inevitable amalgamation of tastes that ultimately dilutes any successful culinary export.
“I want people to know how hard it was for me at the beginning,” she says – not egotistically, but as a gentle rallying cry on behalf of authentic cuisine.
For despite having lived in the UK for decades – her doctors long ago prescribed the rigours of a cold climate – Mudita retains her passion for the land of her birth. It’s a commitment which led her, in 1992, to found The Mudita Trust: a charity with an extraordinary, much earlier genesis on the streets of war-torn Bangkok.
“During World War II Bangkok was bombed heavily. My father used to take me out onto the streets [to see the damage],” she explains.
“I was only four years old, but I remember all the children from the slums begging for food. I asked my father: ‘Where are their parents?’ He told me, as best he could, that they were the children of prostitutes; that they had no fathers and that their mothers were so poor that they had to sell themselves for money.
“When he said that, something lighted in me (sic), in my heart, and I asked him: ‘Why don’t they go to school?’ He said: ‘Because society doesn’t accept them.’ Right then I thought to myself: ‘One day I’d like to do something to help these children.’
“Many years later, someone sent me an article on child prostitution, and I suddenly realised that those children I saw would probably have grown up to be prostitutes themselves. So I hurriedly wrote to the Charity Commission and that was when it all started.”
Since then, the Trust has helped countless young girls – and latterly boys – through the funding of schools and safe houses across Thailand. Mudita’s work has been widely recognized: in 2005 she won the Direkgunaborn Medal, the Thai equivalent of an OBE. Nor has her near-octogenarian status succeeded in slowing her down.
“I go back to Thailand at least once a year,” she says. “I talk to the children about why we help them. We don’t just educate them about poverty, we talk to them about prostitution and warn them to be careful if men approach.”
Are there any signs that the situation for girls is improving?
“Well, it is difficult to get rid of prostitution as long as men are around!” she says, her humour masking an unpalatable truth. “But, as you probably know, we have had martial law in Thailand for the last year – and the army are doing a very, very good job [at eliminating prostitution and trafficking].
“Previously, parents would put their kids into prostitution because they were so poor. This government is prosecuting them [and the clients], so now they are too scared to send their daughters away.”
Mudita’s book will be launched at the Amazing Thailand Festival, which takes place at Secretts over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Proceeds from the book and festival will go to the charity.
“We normally have about 20-30,000 people,” she says of the three-day jamboree that has run in alternate years since 1995. “There’s lots of amazing food and shopping, family attractions and workshops where kids can decorate fans and small umbrellas, in addition to the entertainment on the main stage.
“This year, we also have Thai boxers coming over from Thailand to honour the sport’s founder, Nai Khanom Tom.”
On the Monday, the festival closes with the ceremony of Loi Krathong – a festival celebrated in Thailand in November, during which lotus flower floats (Krathongs) are placed in the water to symbolize forgiveness, washing away sadness so that happiness can flood in.
It’s a special moment for Mudita.
“One year, after the festival, a lady came up and gave me a hug. ‘I used to be a prostitute,’ she said, ‘but thanks to you and your charity, my daughter escaped that fate.’ I could not stop the tears.“
The Amazing Thailand Festival is at Secretts Garden Centre, Milford from August 29-31, 11am-6pm (8pm on Monday). Entry is £10 for an adult with one accompanying child under 14
All visitors will be entered for a prize draw to win two return tickets to Thailand!
Find out more about The Mudita Trust online
Secretts
Hurst Farm Chapel Lane, Milford, GU8 5HU
Farm Shop Monday – Saturday: 8.30am-5.30pm ( We are open from 8.00am for our elderly and vulnerable customers to shop with us and from 8.30am for everyone else). Sunday: 10.00am – 4.00pm
