i. Biography
Chef and founding partner at Issaya Siamese Club in Bangkok, Thailand, Ian Kittichai works in a register shaped by Thai flavor, hotel discipline, international restaurant authorship, television, pastry, street-food advocacy, and contemporary hospitality. His through-line is application: cooking carried from his home city to London, Sydney, Singapore, New York, New York, and back again without making Thai flavor a secondary reference.
Career Arc
Professional kitchen formation came through school training, hotel tempo, and classical restaurant apprenticeship. Ian Kittichai trained at Southeast London Colleges and Sydney Technical College, then worked part-time at Waldorf Hotel in London and apprenticed at Claude’s French restaurant in Sydney. Those rooms supplied the basic trade requirements: repetition, pace, method, and restraint before authorship. Luxury-hotel cooking demands consistency before personality, and the Executive Chef role at Four Seasons Bangkok, Thailand placed Kittichai inside that discipline. The later founder / restaurateur role at Kittichai in New York, New York (from 2003) moved Thai cuisine into a highly competitive international restaurant market, using a composed, modern frame while keeping Thai flavor as the working center. Restaurant work in Bangkok, Thailand later extended into pastry and instruction. Issaya La Patisserie in Bangkok, Thailand (2014–2020) and Issaya Cooking Studio in Bangkok, Thailand (2014–2020) widened Kittichai’s practice beyond the dining room into sweeter production and public-facing teaching. The chef overseeing cuisine role at Tangerine restaurant at Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore (2014–2020) kept the work inside a major regional hospitality structure. Current practice spans restaurant ownership, dessert development, television judging, and concept operation. Ian Kittichai is founder / restaurateur of Issaya Siamese Club (since 2011), Culinary Director and partner of Spot Dessert Bar (since 2011), Iron Chef Innovative Western Cuisine of Iron Chef Thailand (since 2012), Lead Judge of MasterChef Thailand (since 2012), Lead Judge of MasterChef Junior Thailand (since 2012), and operator of Cuisine Concept Co. Ltd. The range each format tests a different part of the craft: service, product, communication, standards, and repeatability.
Where They Are Now
Contemporary Thai restaurant language is the central work at Issaya Siamese Club in Bangkok, Thailand, where Kittichai is chef and founding partner. The restaurant functions as one of his clearest platforms for Thai cooking that is composed and aromatic while still tied to heritage, with flavor carrying the argument rather than presentation alone. Concept-building is part of the same trade when the work has to survive outside one menu cycle. Kittichai is chef-owner of Cuisine Concept in Bangkok, Thailand, and owner of Khum Hom, a Thai restaurant in the Mövenpick BDMS Wellness Resort Bangkok. “I never want to stop learning.” Ian has said.
Signature
Gaeng-Som with mantis shrimp is the named signature, placing sour, spicy, bright, and deep Thai structure around a seafood ingredient known here for distinctive sweetness and texture. In Kittichai’s use of the dish, the familiar form becomes a measure of balance: acidity, heat, depth, and aromatic force held in proportion rather than pushed into novelty for its own sake.
Distinctions
Ian Kittichai has received Food & Wine magazine — Best New Asian Restaurants for Kittichai Restaurant (2005). Ian's honors include Khum Hom included in Michelin Guide Thailand restaurant selections for 2025 (2025), Issaya Siamese Club ranked No. 39 on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants (2018), Issaya Siamese Club listed as one of the world’s hottest restaurants (2018), Issaya Siamese Club: Innovative Thai Cuisine by Chef Ian Kittichai placed first in Best Authors and Chefs category for Thailand (2014), Issaya Siamese Club: Innovative Thai Cuisine by Chef Ian Kittichai placed third for Best Cookbook of The Year (2014), and Best Thai restaurant in America for Kittichai (2005). The recognition covers restaurant selection, regional ranking, international attention, cookbook awards, and early New York, New York acclaim. Read as trade evidence, it marks how Kittichai has carried Thai cuisine through several formats—hotel kitchen, restaurant, cookbook, television, and culinary company—while keeping the cuisine’s complexity in view.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Ian
What is Ian Kittichai's current position?
Ian Kittichai is chef and founding partner at Issaya Siamese Club.
Where did Ian Kittichai train or study?
Ian Kittichai trained at Southeast London Colleges and Sydney Technical College.
What recognition has Ian Kittichai received?
Khum Hom included in Michelin Guide Thailand restaurant selections for 2025 (2025).
