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Update - Since we published this article Simply Thai made it into the Semi-Final of the Best Local Restaurant competition but missed out on a place in the final. Find out all about it in our news article.
VeryThai previously reported that the current series of Gordon Ramsay’s F Word would be on the hunt for the best local restaurants in the UK for a variety of cuisines, including Thai.
As Gordon's search reaches the half-way point we can reveal that the two local Thai restaurants to compete in the F Word kitchen will be Simply Thai of Teddington and Yum Yum of Stoke Newington, who, out of all of the Thai restaurants nominated by the public via the Channel 4 Food website, were voted best in the UK by the F Word team.
 So far we have seen Salvos of Leeds take the top Italian restaurant title, Lasan or Birmingham become the best Indian, Bouchon Bistro near Newcastle took the title of best French restaurant and they were joined by Sweet Mandarin, based in Manchester, as best Chinese. Now only one Thai restaurant can join them, either Simply Thai or Yum Yum.
If you don’t know the format of the Local Restaurant search and the show this is how it works:
Earlier in the year Gordon put out an appeal through the Channel 4 website for visitors to nominate their favourite local restaurants via the F Word Map. Almost 5000 separate establishments were nominated in nine categories; Italian, Indian, French, Chinese, Spanish, Thai, The Americas, British, and Rest of the World.
These nominations were then whittled down by Gordon, Janet Street-Porter and Jean-Baptiste Requien, maitre d’ of the F Word restaurant, through a nationwide tasting-tour. Only the two restaurants in each category deemed best by the trio were invited to compete in the F Word kitchen.
Two kitchen team members from each successful restaurant have battled it out to reach the finals, feeding 50 diners, who will judge whether or not to pay for each course of their meal. The team gaining the most satisfied customers goes on to the leader board to compete in the semi-finals to find the single best local restaurant in the UK.
Which will it be? Here’s how the teams weigh up:
| Simply Thai
Simply Thai has been in business for five years and is owned by Patria Weerapan. The signature dishes of the restaurant include soft-shell crab cooked in balsamic vinegar, coriander, chilli and lemongrass and their signature starter grilled spicy cinnamon quail. The restaurant source fish and meat from local suppliers. Thai ingredients including Thai aubergine, sweet chilli sauce, Thai basil and coconut are sourced from importers or a Thai supermarket in Croydon but everything else must be fresh from England. With a short and precise menu Simply Thai tries to follow the business model of “Nahm”, the only Michelin starred Thai restaurant in the UK but does not aim to expand as the restaurant has been established purely through Head Chef Patria’s love of cooking.
Head Chef: Patria Weerapan (57)
 Patria was born in Bangkok and was brought up for many years by her Aunt who was a food connoisseur. Now a British national, she came to England in 1972 as part of a student exchange, and began work as an accountant. While studying a Business Studies and Accountancy Course in London she became a Management Accountant at Unilever in Kingston Upon Thames, leaving accountancy in 1985 to set up first restaurant in Surbiton. The trigger to make Patria take up cooking instead of accounting came when she cooked “tin chicken” or gai ob fang (hang a chicken, marinate it, pile it up with straw and burn it) for a birthday party 20 years ago, her friends said she should open a restaurant because it tasted so good. Patria still hasn’t told her 98 year old aunt that she is actually cooking for a career and thinks she’d be sad if she found out now.
Second Chef: Nong (27)
 Lagkana Inthachot is better known by her nickname “Nong”, meaning “younger sister”. She moved to England recently to work at Simply Thai as her first chef job. Her cooking experience was all from home where she was taught by her mother. Patria is very supportive of her, but she also pushes her very hard – even more so in preparation for the F Word competition!
Website: www.simplythai-restaurant.co.uk
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| Yum Yum
Yum Yum has been open for 17 years and is run by a husband and wife team, Atique and Moy Choudhury. The signature dishes of the restaurant are lamb massaman curry with pumpkin and potato or deep fried whole sea bream fried in batter in a coconut sauce with curry paste and coconut milk on top, sprinkled with fresh coriander. The restaurant is currently aiming for a Michelin star though Atique believes it to be worthy of a few! Head chef Moy won “Egon Ronay Oriental Chef of the Year” and Yum Yum has also won awards including “Archant: Best Thai Restaurant in London” and “Best Thai in London” for 3 years running in the Asian food awards, “Best Business” in the Hackney awards amongst others.
Head Chef: Moy Choudhury (46)
Moy was born in Thailand but moved to the UK in 1987. Her signature dish is Massaman curry cooked for 2-3 hours to ensure the meat is tender. While Gordon Ramsay is her hero she is not such a fan of his choice of language! Moy is also a fan of the Two Fat Ladies, and wishes she could cook for Kiefer Sutherland because she loves him in “24”! When not cooking she plays badminton and goes to the gym.
Second Chef: Mantana Wichjan (44)
 Mantana began cooking in Thailand twenty years ago and was taught by her mother from a young age. She has worked at Yum Yum for nine years and prior to this was working in restaurants in Thailand.
website: www.yumyum.co.uk/
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Who will be joining the F Word Leaderboard and can either of them beat Sweet Mandarin's record of 82/100 paid for courses? There's only one place to find out...
The episode of the F Word featuring the brigades from the Thai restaurants will be broadcast on Channel 4 at 10pm on Tuesday 1st December. Don’t miss it to find out whether Yum Yum or Simply Thai make it onto the shortlist of Best Local Restaurants.
You can read interviews with the Simply Thai and Yum Yum teams in our restaurant features.
If you have missed any of the previous episodes from the series you can catch up with the competition online at 4OD or find at more at the Channel 4 F Word website.
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