Duangporn Bo Songvisava

Coming Up

Training at Griffith University, the University of Adelaide, and Le Cordon Bleu gave Duangporn Bo Songvisava a formal base before the line work began. Her first listed post was commis 3 at Amanda Gale's Cy'an in Bangkok, Thailand, where the scale of the role suggests the discipline of repetition and station work. In 2005, she moved to Nahm in London, England as Chef de partie, bringing that training into a different service context while staying inside the same Thai framework. Teaching widened the practice beyond restaurants. Duangporn later taught food & beverage management and Thai cooking at Two Thai universities in Thailand, carrying technique into the classroom and making the logic of the cuisine part of the lesson. The shift from service to teaching is a familiar one in trade, but here it also points to a career built around preservation, structure, and transfer. Since 2008, Duangporn has been owner and co-founder of Bo.lan, and since 2015 co-founder and Executive Chef of Err. Those two roles place her inside both the continuity of Thai cooking and its more current forms, with each project giving her a different register for the same body of knowledge.

Where They Are Now

Err : Urban Rustic Thai in Bangkok is where Duangporn works as Executive Chef and co-founder, keeping the cooking direct and immediate. At Bo.Lan, the Bo.Lan Balance Menu is a prix fixe sequence of salad, stir-fry, soup, curry, and spicy relish. It is built as a progression, not a list of separate plates, and its shape shows an interest in pacing as much as flavor. Essentially Thai is framed through travel across Thailand, conversations with farmers, fisherfolk, artisans and foragers, and study of rare historical cookbooks. In that material, Duangporn’s method is clear: source knowledge from people, place, and the archive, then let it guide how Thai food is presented. The result is work that treats research and lived practice as equal parts of the same discipline. “Food for me is really, really special because it's the food that has really unique collectors.” The line keeps the emphasis on keeping and gathering, which fits a kitchen practice that values what is found, remembered, and carried forward.

Signature

Duangporn's signature dishes include Bo.Lan Balance Menu and Essentially Thai.

In Their Words “Food for me is really, really special because it's the food that has really unique collectors.”

Honors

Duangporn's honors include Asia's Best Female Chef.