Like Father, Like Sons.
It is fitting that both Boundy Senathit´s sons should continue in his footsteps, or in this case, his Kitchen Clogs.
Arriving to the UK in the early 70´s, Boundy forged a happy home for his family, working all hours of the day to ensure that his wife and then only child, would have enough to eat. His catering career started off as a Cook in a small London Pub. When his second son arrived, he worked the graveyard shift in one of London´s grand hotels whilst his my mother cleaned the rooms during the day, this way, at least one of them would be home when I finished school.
I remember not having much as a child, I would envy all my friends with their new clothes, school kits and summer holidays. I would sit home and sulk when we couldn’t afford the money for me to go on school outings. But now that I am older, I understand why. We always had food on the table, and a warm comfortable home.
I have never worked with my father, I think that it would be such a culture clash.
King prepares a light dinner.
During my fathers time as a Chef, he would work the exhausting hours churning out dishes. There was no way a Laotian would dare try to make “his own” food during that time, hardly anyone had heard of Thailand then, so why would people have heard of Laos?
Thankfully times have moved on, people have opened their minds, and though my father is away from the big kitchens, he still remains faithful to his craft and now works with my mother on their own business, cooking food from their own Catering Unit in one of London’s busiest markets, its a change from the hoi palloi of the grand kitchens, but saying that, its not uncommon to for them to knock out huge numbers of dishes within a short time span. They named their business Thai & Lao Cuisine, one of the first companies in the UK to use the word Lao commercially.
It now up to King and I to continue what he started, and along with our Lao Cook Team, we plan to do just that…
