Chef Thompson Honored With 2016 Diners Club® Lifetime Achievement Award
Today, David Thompson has been named the recipient of the 2016 Diners Club®Lifetime Achievement Award. This prestigious accolade is part of the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy; an influential group of over 300 leaders in the restaurant industry across Asia, each selected for their expert opinion of Asia’s restaurant scene.
In 1986, Australian-born Chef David Thompson took a brief holiday to Thailand and found his life’s passion of becoming the world’s authority on Thai cuisine. He spent years building his culinary craft by studying centuries-old recipes from former matrons of Thailand. David’s gastronomic forte is creating traditional Thai meals that meld the flavors of hot and sour, sweet and salty into one magnificent dish. With his encyclopedic culinary knowledge of Thai cuisine in hand, Thompson opened, Nahm in London in 2001, and within six months, won the first Michelin-Star for Thai cuisine in Europe.
In 2010, Thompson decided to return back to Thailand to further expand his life’s passion by opening Nahm at Metropolitan by COMO in Bangkok. The restaurant was ranked by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list at #50 in 2012, #32 in 2013, and its current ranking at #22. In 2014, Nahm was ranked #1 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
His response to the accolade was: “Usually I am rather embarrassed by awards but to receive something as significant as this, voted for by my peers in the industry, does indeed make me proud and grateful. I still have the same joy in cooking as I had when I first began. It is a timeless pleasure for me, so I feel very lucky.”
On 29 February 2016, Thompson will formally receive his well-deserved honor at the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants award ceremony at the W Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna.