Ohm Suansilphong
KRU | Brooklyn
February 2023
Ohm Suansilphong started cooking from a young age at his parents’ restaurant in Thailand. After studying at The Oriental Thai Cooking School in the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, Suansilphong worked in fine dining at Nahm, Chef David Thompson’s Michelin-star Thai restaurant featured on the “World’s 50 Best” list. He then moved to Australia to work at Long Grain, a modern Southeast Asian restaurant where he got his first taste of cooking outside of his Thai culinary boundaries.
In 2016, he brought his experience to New York City and joined his brother Chat in the kitchen to open Fish Cheeks, a family-style Thai restaurant in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. Along with their business partner Jenn Saesue, the trio aimed to show New Yorkers the southern Thai food from their childhood, filled with bird’s eye chilies and fresh seafood. The restaurant received a star from New York Times’ Pete Wells and landed on Eater’s “38 Essential Restaurants” list. In December 2018, Suansilphong opened Chicks Isan, a fast-casual concept serving contemporary cuisine from Thailand’s northeastern Isan region. Located inside Brooklyn’s DeKalb Market Hall, the kai yang (grilled chicken) earned a special nod as a New York Times Critics Pick from Columnist Ligaya Mishan. In 2022, Suansilphong opened KRU in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood earning a James Beard semi-finalist nod for “Best Chef New York.”
