Sylva’s favorite Thai Restaurant has received a national nod as Chef Kanlaya “Gun” Supachana of Dalaya Thai Cuisine was nominated for best chef in the Southeast.
Supachana, who is originally from the Chiang Mai region of northern Thailand, opened the Jackson County restaurant in 2019, Smoky Mountain News reported.
“I want this room to feel like my home, where everyone is welcome, where we look forward to introducing you to the real cooking of my native Thailand,” Supachana told Smoky Mountain News in 2022.
The cozy restaurant sits along Scotts Creek near downtown Sylva allowing the gurgle of the creek to accompany the symphony of authentic Thai food smells inside the restaurant.
Supachana previously operated a popular restaurant in Brooklyn which was lauded by the New York Times.
This month, Supachana is back in Thailand visiting her hometown until February 1. Dalaya Thai posted their thanks on Instagram on January 28.
"Many, many, many thanks and so much love to all our wonderful customers over the years! Without you, we wouldn’t be where we are now," the restaurant wrote.
BPR stopped by the restaurant at lunchtime on Thursday and chatted with Nadtayanee Chataanai, the new chef filling in while Supachana is away.
Chataanai said she is excited about the nomination. She just moved to Sylva from Bangkok to work at the restaurant about three months ago, after training at culinary school to cook traditional Thai dishes. She was excited to be mentored by Supachana and to work on dishes together.
“I am so happy. I have fun a lot. We have a lot of experiential exchange. She had a Northern recipe and I had an original Thai recipe from Bangkok so we have to discuss it and exchange,” Chataanai said.
She said Dalaya recently celebrated selling 5,000 bowls of their signature dish Khao Soi. The dish is a light coconut curry soup with whole dark meat chicken leg with thick egg noodles in the soup and fried crispy noodles on top.
“I think if people come here they know about the Khao Soi already because it is a special dish in Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand,” she explained.
Most recently, Dalaya Thai has been written up by Garden & Gun and The Assembly.
Supachana is also an important part of the local community hosting local events from Thailand's Festival of Lights, a Loykrathong Festival event with WNC AAPI and a BIPOC Holiday Market.
Final nominees will be announced on Wednesday, April 3, and winners will be announced at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards Ceremony on Monday, June 10 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
This story was updated Monday January 29 to include Dalaya's Instagram post about the nomination.
