Today we’d like to introduce you to Alada Poodtajan
Hi Alada, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I moved to St. Louis from Thailand in 2020 because my husband is from here. I grew up in a small village outside of Chiang Rai in the north of Thailand where my parents are farmers and everything we ate was made at home from scratch. I went to university in Bangkok and worked in kitchens there before I moved here.
When I got here I was disappointed at the lack of authentic Thai food. My husband and I originally thought about a food Truck and I was working with my English and on starting a business at the International Institute, when a friend there suggested starting with a stand at farmers markets.
We started Tee Rak (Thai for “My love”) Thai in Spring of 2023 and just finished our second year doing the Tower Grove Farmers Market as well as doing the U City Market, the market at the Boulevard and lots of bigger festivals.
We’ve built a nice following of loyal customers and are now working on a brick and mortar space for our restaurant.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Very little has gone smoothly. Especially our first year we had no idea what we were doing. It was just me and my husband and our first market we were late, lost about half of our pad Thai sauce when a bucket spilled on the drive there, and our nephew, who never had a job before, had to save us by coming back to help us.
We’ve had to learn a lot. We did a couple big festivals that were disasters for us, we’ve broken about 5 iPad screens from drops, wind, etc., flat tires, and lots of times I wanted to murder my husband.
Our second season was much smoother because of everything we learned the first year, but it’s still a big job having to prep for 3-4 markets a week, setting up, breaking things down, and I still sometimes think I just want to quit and go back to waiting tables.
But we’ve worked our butts off and know that it will be worth it when we have our own spot.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’ve always said I have a relationship with food. I love food and I love making food. I’ve always been able to taste something and identify the flavors and ingredients. I’ve had a lifetime of experience but I felt I wanted to hone my skills, so this past winter my husband and I went back to Thailand to see my family for the first time since I moved here, and I went to Natchajan Culinary School to earn my certification as a Thai chef.
I’ve always been very serious about doing everything exactly how it’s supposed to be done so I’ve had to learn to be more lenient when it comes to customers making modifications (of course some requests are too ridiculous) because I’m making food for them and want them to love it.
The thing I love most is when customers tell me how much they loved their food.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I’ve been an extremely independent person my whole life so one thing I’ve had to work on is looking to others for advice and help.
When we started doing the farmers markets one of the other vendors, Damn Fine Hand Pies, would have a long line as soon as the market started. I said, “I want to have a line just like that.” I started talking to Damn Fine’s owner Madeline, who was super nice and told me that it took her a long time to build that following and that if I made delicious food and kept it good word would spread and we’d build our own following. She was right and now we have lines and sell out every week (and she just opened her own brick and mortar space!).
I’ve worked in restaurants (as a server, cook, etc) for years but never opened my own so now I need to turn to successful restauranteurs for guidance. I know that it won’t be easy and there will be lots of challenges to opening a restaurant but hopefully we can minimize them by learning from others’ mistakes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://teerakthai.com
- Instagram: @teerakstl
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/TeeRakSTL
