Gordon Ramsay found a new sparring partner in last night's edition of The F Word in the unlikely form of a 57 year old female Thai chef...
Patria Weerapan, owner and Head Chef of Simply Thai in Teddington, was branded "Scary Spice", "the Iron Lady" and "the female Gordon Ramsay from Bangkok" by Gordon. Despite this, the celebrity chef seemed to enjoy the challenge of having Weerapan as a guest in his kitchen.
Patria almost single-handedly caters for the guests at her restaurantin Teddington, preparing every dish herself for up to 32 covers at a time. Her dedicated work ethic and self-confessed "chef's temperament" earned her the respect of Gordon Ramsay and his affectionate nick-names. Patria claims that the last time she had a day off was last Easter Sunday, she works seven days a week, not even taking one day out of the kitchen and claims to sleep for just five hours a night.
W
eerapan believes that her dedication to her cooking and the love and passion that she puts into her dishes are the secret behind her success. Fresh, good quality ingredients are a must and a mark up of 70% profit is not of major concern to her. This combination has earnt her a loyal following of returning diners at Simply Thai.
It seems this philosophy also paid off in The F Word kitchen as Simply Thai, 
Teddington beat Yum Yum of Stoke Newington to a place in The F Word Best Local Restaurant Semi-finals to be broadcast in the coming weeks. Their score of 82 paid-for courses out of a possible 100 places them joint-first on the Best Local Restaurant Leader board with Sweet Mandarin Chinese restaurant of Manchester.
“It proves that if you put your heart and
soul into everything you work you gonna achieve”
Patria Weerapan, Simply Thai, Teddington
You can read an interview with “the Iron Lady” herself here. In addition to this you can find out more about both Simply Thai and Yum Yum in our F Word feature.
Missed the show? Catch up at 4oD
