The character arc of Pim Techamuanvivit
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born in 1971 and raised in Bangkok. Between then and now sit graduate school at the University of California San Diego, jobs at Netscape and Cisco Systems, a blog started in 2001 that became one of the best known food blogs of the early internet, a book in 2009 that met mixed reviews, a jam business, trips home to learn family recipes from her aunt, a restaurant called Kin Khao opened in San Francisco in 2014 and a Michelin star the year after, and an invitation in 2018 to take over one of the most respected Thai kitchens in Bangkok. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Pim Techamuanvivit?
Netscape, then a blog, then jam. Then a Michelin star.
She was born and grew up in Bangkok and came to the United States for graduate school at the University of California San Diego. After graduating she worked for Netscape and then Cisco Systems, which in the 1990s in northern California was as close to the centre of the world as it was possible to stand.
In 2001 she started a blog. Chez Pim became a popular food blog in the early days of the Blogger platform, when food blogging barely existed as a thing anybody did, let alone as a route into a career. In 2009 she published a book, The Foodie Handbook, which the record says met mixed reviews.
What she did after the mixed reviews is the interesting part. She turned gradually towards cooking rather than writing about it. She started a jam business first, which is a very small and very unglamorous way to begin, and then focused on Thai food, learning family recipes from her aunt on visits home to Thailand. The blogger went and learned her own grandmother cooking properly, from a relative, in her forties.
She opened Kin Khao in San Francisco in 2014, and it received a Michelin star a year later. That is a fast star for a first restaurant by somebody with no classical kitchen career behind her at all.
In 2018 she was approached to take over as head chef at Nahm in Bangkok, the Michelin-starred restaurant founded by David Thompson, which meant going home to run the most scrutinised Thai kitchen there is, in the city she grew up in, as a chef who had made her name abroad. She took it in 2019. The same year she opened two more places in San Francisco: Kamin, a takeaway at the airport, and Nari, a larger restaurant. Nari also holds a Michelin star.
The moments
Pim Techamuanvivit's timeline.
The 1970s
Born in Bangkok
Everyday. Bangkok, 1971.
The 1990s
Graduate school in California
Milestone, and it changed her direction. She arrived for a degree, not a kitchen.
Netscape, then Cisco
Milestone, and it changed everything. Two of the biggest names of the era, on her first resume.
The 2000s
Chez Pim
Milestone, and it changed everything. A food blog, before food blogs were a thing.
Mixed reviews
Setback, and it changed everything. The book did not land, and she changed direction.
The 2010s
Write about food, or cook it
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: go and actually cook, taken, or stay a writer. Kin Khao opened in 2014 and had a Michelin star the following year, and Bangkok asked her to run Nahm in 2018.
A jam business
Milestone, and it changed everything. She started with jam, which is about as small as a start gets.
Recipes from her aunt
Milestone, and it changed everything. She went home and learned the family cooking properly.
Kin Khao opens
Milestone, and it changed everything. A first restaurant, with no classical kitchen career behind it.
A Michelin star
Milestone, and it changed everything. One year from opening to a star.
They ask her to run Nahm
Milestone, and it changed everything. The city she left, asking her to come back and cook.
Two more, and Bangkok
Milestone, and it changed everything. Three kitchens in one year, on two continents.
The 2020s
A second starred room
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Two of her San Francisco rooms hold stars.
She runs kitchens on two sides of the Pacific now, in the city she left and the city she arrived in. What she set moving is the least likely route into a Michelin kitchen anybody on this site took, which ran through Netscape, a Blogger account and a batch of jam.
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Pim Techamuanvivit: frequently asked questions
What people ask about her line.
What is Pim Techamuanvivit's character arc?
What is Chez Pim by Pim Techamuanvivit?
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Where does this timeline of Pim Techamuanvivit's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with her.
Sources
- Pim Techamuanvivit, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Chez Pim, her blog, from 2001.
- The Foodie Handbook, 2009.
- The Michelin Guide listings for Kin Khao, Nari and Nahm.