Corey Thomas

The Path

Thomas began building a notable culinary path as sous chef at Shaya Restaurant from 2015, a formative chapter inside a restaurant already known for clarity and voice. He moved on as chef at Domenica from 2017, continuing to refine a style that could carry both precision and warmth. Later, he served as chef at Commander’s Palace, another significant line on a résumé that reads as a steady ascent through some of New Orleans’ most recognizable dining institutions. Today, Corey is Executive Chef of Restaurant August since 2022 and chef of Baan Suan Lung Khai, a pairing that underscores the breadth of his experience and the uncommon geography of his work.

The Work Today

Since 2022, he has led Restaurant August as Executive Chef, shaping the New Orleans restaurant with the calm authority that comes from years spent moving through demanding kitchens. The role places him at the center of a dining room where expectation is part of the atmosphere, and his work there continues to build on the disciplined foundation of his earlier posts. On Koh Samui, meanwhile, his focus shifts to the deeply rooted rhythms of Home-style Southern Thai cooking, with seafood set menus as the specialty. The two kitchens may sit worlds apart, yet both speak to Thomas’s interest in food that is recognizable, grounded, and made with a clear sense of purpose.

Signature

Corey’s signature dishes include Red Snapper Pontchartrain, a dish whose name alone suggests the kind of polished, and distinctly regional cooking that has helped define his career.

In Their Words “I think it’s a more accessible tradition.”

Acclaim

The clearest marker of his work is the span between a New Orleans executive-chef appointment and a Southern Thai kitchen, a combination that signals not novelty for its own sake, but a willingness to move between culinary languages with fluency. Thomas has said, “I think it’s a more accessible tradition.” That line offers a useful key to his trajectory: whether at Restaurant August, at Baan Suan Lung Khai, or in the kitchens of Shaya Restaurant, Domenica, and Commander’s Palace, his career has been defined by accessibility that does not flatten tradition, but opens it up.