Executive Chef and Owner, Kin Khao | San Francisco, CA

Pim Techamuanvivit is executive chef and owner of Kin Khao and Nari in San Francisco, and executive chef at Nahm in Bangkok – three successful restaurants across two continents, each one with a Michelin star of their own. She’s also been twice the finalist for the James Beard Awards for Best Chef: California but she’d much rather be called a cook than a chef. A proud Thai cook, Pim opened her first restaurant, Kin Khao, in San Francisco in 2014, ostensibly to liberate her beloved Thai cuisine from the tyranny of peanut sauce. Kin Khao received the first Michelin star the following year. In the Spring of 2018, she became the executive chef at Nahm in Bangkok. Nahm was awarded a Michelin star the year before she took over the kitchen, and she’s kept that star since. In the Fall of 2019, she opened Nari. Meaning “women” in Thai, Nari is her tribute to the many generations of Thai women cooks who have always been the heart and soul of Thai cuisine. Nari quickly made it onto many best restaurant lists including those by The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Esquire, among many others. Closed largely throughout the pandemic, Nari reopened in late 2021 and earned the first Michelin star in 2023. All three of Pim’s restaurants maintain a Michelin star today. She is currently working with the cookbook author Andrea Nguyen to produce a forthcoming publication titled, Cooking Thai: Heritage and Modern Recipes from My Kitchen Notebooks, to be published by Ten Speed Press. @chezpim