Seng Sothea ( km, សេង សុធា; born in 1984 in Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia) is a Cambodian

chef A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitche ...

and

restaurateur A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspec ...

. Owner of Palate Angkor, Hot Stone Café, Mahob, Lava and Lum Orng restaurants.

Biography

Seng Sothea was born in Kampong Cham Province in a family of poor rice farmers. At the age of 10, he started helping his family in the kitchen with cooking and

food preservation Food preservation includes processes that make food more resistant to microorganism growth and slow the oxidation of fats. This slows down the decomposition and rancidification process. Food preservation may also include processes that inhibit ...

. In 1999 they moved to

Siem Reap Siem Reap ( km, សៀមរាប, ) is the second-largest city of Cambodia, as well as the capital and largest city of Siem Reap Province in northwestern Cambodia. Siem Reap has French colonial and Chinese-style architecture in the Old F ...

where Sothea started working as a waiter at the age of 15. A year later he got a job at the Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra as a kitchen hand and few years later started working at

Le Méridien Le Méridien is an upscale, design-focused international hotel brand with a European perspective. It was originally founded by Air France in 1972 and was later based in the United Kingdom. Marriott International now owns the chain. As of June 202 ...

Angkor as chef de partie. After being recommended by a friend to the hotel's head chef, Sothea went to Dubai to work for the Grand Hyatt. Afterwards, Sothea also worked for Andiamo, Indochine, and Manhattan Grill. In 2008 he returned to Cambodia and started working as an executive chef at Nest, then as an executive chef and F&B manager in Plantation Hotel in

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...

and finally Metro and Hakkasan restaurants. In January 2014 Sothea opened a

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke t ...

restaurant Hot Stone Cafe in Siem Reap together with his wife Sonita Chou. The same year on July and November he opened his third restaurant Mahob serving

Cambodian cuisine Cambodian cuisine is an umbrella term for the cuisines of all ethnic groups in Cambodia, whereas Khmer cuisine ( km, សិល្បៈធ្វើម្ហូបខ្មែរ; ) refers specifically to the more than thousand years old culina ...

and fourth restaurant Lava serving Cambodian, Chinese and other Asian cuisine, as well as fusion cuisine. On 1 June 2019, in outer Siem Reap Sothea opened Lum Orng, Cambodia's first farm-to-table restaurant. In 2021 Lum Orng was one of three restaurants in Cambodia to be included in the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants' "Essence of Asia" list.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seng, Sothea 1984 births Cambodian chefs Living people Cambodian businesspeople People from Kampong Cham province