Introducing our Local Legend Chouny Thidavanh, a talented chef with a passion for food and sharing Laotian cuisine.
Chouny’s story
Chouny was born and raised in the countryside 21km north of the sleepy town of Luang Prabang. As a young girl, her life was very busy taking care of her younger siblings, cooking for the family and helping her parents on their farm. Huge responsibilities for such a young age. At nine years old she took a bold leap of faith and left her family and hometown to stay with relatives in Luang Prabang to pursue her education.
Chouny describes this as a life-changing decision, bringing about so many of the positive changes she enjoys today. After graduating from high school, Chouny joined the hospitality industry, working as a chef in a well-established hotel in this beautiful town. This was when Chouny fell in love with cooking and grew in confidence, meeting and sharing cooking skills with many colleagues and guests.
Her life was to take a further change when she got married and had children. Not quite ready to leave her passion for food behind, she was torn between her work life and her other true passion, her family. Earlier this year Chouny decided to combine her two passions, cooking and family, and now she is offering home-cooked family meals from the setting of her home, a beautiful traditional wooden house with a breath-taking view of the valley.
Chouny is a self-described shy character with a determination to share her story and her beloved Laotian cuisine with those who would like to learn.
During this experience you should expect a real meaningful connection with a Laotian family, to sample delicious home-cooked local food and to understand Chouny’s story from childhood to today.