Thanphuying Kleeb Mahidhorn, fondly remembered as Kleeb Krairiksh, is best-known among Thai historians and culinary enthusiasts for her classic collection of recipes, Recipes To Teach My Children And Grandchildren (1949) and Fruits, Snacks And Desserts (1957).
Thanphuying Kleeb Mahidhorn, née Kleeb Champa, was born on Jan 24, 1876, in the house of Chao Phraya Rattanaphiphit I in Samran Rat, a tambon of Bangkok. She was the daughter of Muen Nararak, a wealthy Bang Yi Khan orchard owner, and Hoon, the grand-niece of Chao Phraya Rattanaphiphit. Her great-grandfather, Luang Thoranen, was married to Chao Suputta of the Kingdom of Vientiane (part of today's Laos). Thanphuying Kleeb entered the Grand Palace at the age of seven under the care of Princess Jamree, a daughter of King Rama III.
At the age of 15, she went to stay with her paternal grandmother at the family's orchards in Bang Yi Khan. Here, Thanphuying Kleeb was taught how to cook traditional Siamese food. At the age of 18, Thanphuying Kleeb married La-Or Krairiksh (later Chao Phraya Mahidhorn), then a budding young clerk at the Supreme Court. At 19, Thanphuying Kleeb was in charge of her own household, her new duties including preparing meals for her family. Aside from having to take care of her young family, she was also required to host and prepare meals for the continuous influx of her husband's guests and friends. This was, however, an opportunity for Thanphuying Kleeb to innovate many simple variations on traditional dishes.
The original recipe book. Photos: Nianne-Lynn Hendricks
In 1948, from memory alone, she dictated more than 160 of her recipes to one of her eldest granddaughters, Chaloemkwan Krishnamra, to transcribe, and printed the first savoury recipe book, Recipes To Teach My Children And Grandchildren, to distribute on her 72nd birthday in 1949. She later published another book on her 82nd birthday in 1957, transcribed by her then 11-year-old grandson, Dr Kraipun Yunibandhu. This edition, titled Fruits, Snacks And Desserts, contained more than 90 recipes. Heritage Cuisine was the first bilingual version of Recipes To Teach My Children And Grandchildren, translated, reinterpreted and authored by Kamontip Snidvongs na Ayudhya and published in 2012.
The 2021 rendition of the book, Petals Of The Champaka, Recipes To Teach My Children And Grandchildren is an English translation of the Thai words "Kleeb Champa": the birth name of Thanphuying Mahidhorn. Here, Life speaks with Kamontip and Thanphuying Kleeb's grandson Dr Kraipun.
What is your relationship with Thanphuying Kleeb?
Kamontip: Dr Kraipun is her grandson, his mother is the daughter of Thanphuying Kleeb Champa. My grandmother, on the other hand, was her husband's younger sister. So I am related to her through marriage.
Dr Kraipun: However, we are also related by blood since our mothers were first cousins and that makes us second cousins. When I was still at school, I stayed with my grandmother for around seven years and she brought me up like a second mother.
How did the book come about?
Kamontip: The first book, which was savouries only, was published in 1949 on Thanphuying Kleeb's 72nd birthday. There was a follow-up book on desserts, fruits and snacks, which was published on her 82nd birthday. These two books were combined into one complete big book and that was published for her funeral. So in their original forms, the books were published by the family three times. When her great-granddaughter got married, the funeral book was reproduced as a wedding favour for guests. Within the family, the book has been printed four times, though these were always given out as gifts to the family, primarily.
Heritage Cuisine. Nianne-Lynn Hendricks
Why the decision to publish the recipe book in Thai and English?
Kamontip: Ten years ago, my aunt-in-law passed away and I asked her son [Dr Piriya Krairiksh] if he was going to publish a funeral book. Being an art historian, he wanted to publish his art history book. We had a discussion and decided to publish the recipe book, which his mother used all the time, and the art book as mementos. He also wanted the recipe book to be printed in Thai and English, and sent me the original book for translation purposes. But this book was still only available to family and friends.
Did you just translate or were the recipes tested, as well?
Kamontip: I didn't actually translate Heritage Cuisine, as such. I reinterpreted the recipes with measurements and more extensive explanations because Thanphuying Kleeb's original book is very brief. It is written for somebody who knows how to cook Thai food.
Dr Kraipun: In the old days, my grandmother's measurements was 'just a pinch of that, a pinch of this'. To recreate this, Kamontip's friend and my wife were the main cooks, who followed Kamontip's instructions. I tasted daily what was cooked.
How long did Heritage Cuisine take and how many recipes are in it?
Dr Kraipun: The book took around three months of us being holed up in Hua Hin during the 2011 floods, doing nothing else but recreating the recipes.
Kamontip: We cooked three dishes a day because it was a lot of work, especially since Thanphuying Kleeb's instructions were as vague as 'make curry paste'. There are around 90 savoury recipes, though the original savoury book has 166 recipes.
Given that most of the recipes are more than 72 years old, how did you decide to choose them for Heritage Cuisine? Was finding ingredients hard, considering that ingredients have changed over the last 100 years?
Kamontip: Luckily, we could find most of the ingredients, except in certain cases. In the old days, most ingredients were found at a chemist. There are a few that we wanted to replace. For instance, a few of the ingredients were not in season, like certain kinds of mushroom. In the book, we have suggested replacements, especially for fish, which are no longer in fashion.
Ped nueng (steamed duck with savoury stuffing). Photo: Krua Kleeb Champa Co Ltd
The biggest problem was that in the original book there are absolutely no measurements! There was just a list of ingredients and I said if this book is going to make sense to the younger generation, which was her wish when publishing the book in the first place, we had to set up a project to cook the recipes. It had to be a cook who knew about palace recipes and the way of cutting the ingredients, which affects the taste of the dish. These were very specific requirements.
I enlisted a friend, who also came from the same family background and was interested in cooking. Most of these recipes were common among households in those days, though some were specific to Thanphuying Kleeb, like her own creations. I also had my mother, who at the time 10 years ago was 93, to come and help.
Dr Kraipun: I was enlisted as chief taster because I grew up eating Thanphuying Kleeb's food. We had to make sure that we were being true to the taste.
Kamontip: The book at my aunt's funeral was called Heritage Cuisine and was published in Thai and English, with the pictures taken by my husband, Alexander Blackwood.
How did the new publication, Petals Of The Champaka, come about?
Dr Kraipun: My daughter Rosalind Yunibandhu decided that the book be republished and offered for sale as a legacy to Thanphuying Kleeb. Petals Of The Champaka has the same recipes and content, but unlike its predecessors has more history about Thanphuying Kleeb. A professional chef was hired, along with a photographer just for this reprint.
How did you choose recipes for Petals Of The Champaka?
Kamontip: Like with the bilingual book, I started off with her signature dishes, which are very difficult to find anywhere outside the family. Then I chose the creative dishes that you couldn't find anywhere else. A lot of her salads are different and delicious. There is a soup called gaeng hed korn and because Thanphuying Kleeb also cooked Western food, in that soup she uses croutons in the form of pa thong ko, which was quite brilliant for those times. There were a lot of little things like that and those recipes also made it to the book. Even simple things like yum [salad] tomato are so refreshing and easy to use.
My most amazing discovery was a recipe where ginger is shredded finely and washed multiple times to remove most of the sharpness. So that's how I chose the recipes. If she wanted the latter generations to use her recipes, there had to be something simple for them to do quickly.
How many recipes are in Petals Of The Champaka?
Kamontip: This time, we recruited chef Chudaree 'Tam' Debhakam of Baan Tepa Culinary Space to recreate the dishes, though we didn't have time to cook the entire book again. We took out a few dishes that are not pleasant to eat, like one particular curry, which is bitter, and a red curry, which has three more ingredients than the normal red curry.
The book has around 93 recipes, three of them being desserts. Petals Of The Champaka will also take the same format as Heritage Cuisine, where you have a picture of every recipe.
Petals Of The Champaka. Krua Kleeb Champa Co Ltd
I cannot replicate what the memory of the dishes from Dr Kraipun's childhood is, even though I can cook them. There's a big difference there. We tried to be as authentic as we could by testing and making sure that everything we cooked tasted and looked the same as the original dishes. The only thing I can say is that all palace cuisine must be well-rounded.
Dr Kraipun: I have problems with the word 'authentic'. You can learn how to cook a cuisine but you can't learn taste, memories and the feelings of someone who has grown up eating a particular cuisine.
Petals Of The Champaka releases today. Visit petalsofthechampaka.com or buy it at shop.line.me/@petalsofthechampa. Line @petalsofthechampa.
