Today we’d like to introduce you to Tharathip Soulisak.
Tharathip, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in Northern Virginia right outside of DC as the child of Lao refugee parents that fled their home country of Laos in the 1970’s along with many other Lao people. At a very young age, my mother taught me the importance of cultural and Buddhist traditions. I was only about 12 years old my mom first shared her story of risking her life fleeing her country and coming with not a cent to the US a foreign and unknown place struggling to take care of their family. With tears sobbing down my face my mom ended the story with “although I have no expensive items, riches or heirlooms for you the most valuable thing I can give you is your heritage and faith”. Since that moment, I began to volunteer myself for my community and I knew whatever I did in life had to revolve around cultural preservation, awareness and prosperity. My mother was strong and resilient even until this day working around the clock with little sleep to take care of others. When it came to cooking she throws down in the kitchen so confidently like the hottest person strutting into a room. Her cooking just makes you want to take a double take or in this case “just one more bite.” People were and still are ordering from her everyday and there’s likely to be a waiting list because she’s always sold out. I knew her food was good but I didn’t think much of it growing up because I was use to it.
After high school, I moved out to Los Angeles because I wanted to pursue my dream of being a great Event Designer. In Virginia, I was already getting clients as early as 15 years old and young naive self-taught strolling into LA grabbing up clients would be a walk in the park, I was definitely wrong. There’s lots of competition in LA, I’m young and no one knew me. I’d have to beg for clients working for nickels because I just hoped this client would get me my next client and hopefully eventually one of them would be the client of my dreams giving me enough of a budget to put my full creative power to use and that would be the moment I take off, it never happened. Instead, I would beg for clients who couldn’t really afford me to do work within a budget that wasn’t enough to impress any future good client. From the time I came to LA till my late 20’s I did what mostly anyone else that came her to pursue entertainment dreams, working a job that we don’t want with barely any little time to pursue the goals we want and after a long workday we try to forget about it by partying and drinking excessively only to begin the sad cycle again the next day. There was never enough time or money to do anything else. At the height of my work and party life, I rented a guest house right off Melrose and Robertson in West Hollywood living within a block of the Abbey. My house became the pregame, the intermission, the cheap drink stop and the after party spot. Almost everyday I’d have friends over and maybe it was my caretaker side or my event designer side that always wanted to make everything cute and fabulous. I’d decorate, have drinks ready and the best playlist blasting.
Eventually, with people coming over so often I started learning how to cook, I’d even have my mom mail food over because there was no Lao food much less anything as good as moms. My friends kept asking me to cook and I was really inspired to want to begin working on community projects again but needed some money so I offered my friends to come and eat in exchange for them pitching in money to my projects. I threw my first pop-up restaurant without ever knowing such a thing exist. It was a success and it got me to think what else could I do. I quickly remembered my mom’s Lao beef jerky is her best seller and most requested item and decided to give it a try. At the next social gathering I went to, I made a batch of my mom’s jerky and without letting people know, I placed it on the table just to get people’s reactions. Typically Lao jerky is eaten as part of the main meal however it was gone before the meal even started with everyone asking each other “who brought the jerky”. When people found out the jerky was made by me I had a list of orders not even knowing what I was doing. I decided that I needed to keep at this because this was my ticket to freedom, freedom from a job, freedom from making someone else rich, freedom to volunteer my time again, to give again and to pursue my passions. I move out of West Hollywood to be further away from the action in order to be more productive in growing it into a business. My sales kept growing enough for me to take the risk of quitting my job and pursuing it full time. In order to grow my business, I took on business partners and investors because at the time, I didn’t think there was any way I could do this with money to get things moving.
For a couple of years, the sales grew and we were selling everywhere all over LA but it wasn’t fun anymore. My business partner was becoming increasingly demeaning and belittling which eventually lead to me no longer wanting to work under those conditions. I was told if I didn’t work I would be sued and the business that I created, my baby, would be taken away from me. What I was being sued for if found guilty could have lead to even more severe consequences even possibly jail time. I wasn’t working, sales came to a halt, I had no money for bills much less for lawyers to battle this case that I was quickly losing. I plummeted into depression randomly crying in agonizing pain right behind peoples backs as soon as they would look away, I just didn’t know what to do. It continued for months and all I could think of is I’ve never done anything to hurt anyone, I’ve only volunteered and given to others, all I was doing was trying to build myself and here I am facing an absurd legal battle I’m loosing with little hope that could land me behind bars. All I could think of in those moments is this pain is so unbearable I don’t want to live to feel it in the next moment. After many months of those same repeated feelings I asked myself “if I don’t want to live to feel it another moment than why am I?” I realize that my faith in Buddhist teachings were strong enough to hold me back from doing anything drastic because if this moment was already horrible and I live through it how much worse will it be if I have to be reborn into it again. With the realization that that’s what was keeping me alive, I decided to immerse myself in those teachings and meditation.
Slowly my depression started to weaken, my strength and awareness became stronger. I called around to every lawyer I could think of and finally found one that was willing to work on my case and although cheaper than others it was still and big price tag for someone who had nothing. I asked my partner to help borrowing money from others and my mother but aside from just lawyer retainers with bills, rent and cost of living it just wasn’t enough however I wasn’t just going to lay down and die like before, I was now determined. I decided let’s go back to how it all started with me cooking delicious Lao food my mother has always made for me growing up and ask people to pay for a seat. I called a social club I had known where I previously sampled jerky to them, they gave me a space and within a week tickets were sold out. After that event, people I didn’t even know who heard of me from a friend of a friend of a friend were asking to hire me to private chef at their home even when there wasn’t a special event they’d make up an excuse to have me private chef. Between this and working app based jobs around the clock, I was not only able to survive but afforded me enough to pay for my legal fees and was not defeated in my case.
With so many people asking me to cook all the time, I decided to let’s try an official pop-up with a Lao noodle shop concept I call PhoLaoSouphy. We popped up for three planned weekends street food style on the front patio of a bobba shop called “heyhey” in Echo Park. Everyday was busier than the last and ending out last planned pop-up day with a two hour line. Without trying, we’d find out afterwards that we had bloggers, food critics and different known people in the food scene as well as some celebrities coming to our pop-up. Our pop-up lead us to be invited last min to the LA Times Food Bowl Night Market where I didn’t know what I was doing, I was new to the scene with well-known names in the restaurant industry and I’m merely a couple of months old pop-up. I didn’t think we’d be busy compared to others but that’s ok because we should just be happy to have been invited is at least what I told everyone else. We were slammed with the longest lines wrapping past other vendors and even then, I thought it was a first day freak accident fluke but it continued everyday. The interest in my cooking and Lao food continued to grow with several other different gigs and Lao food pop-up concepts since then but none other was more anticipated than PhoLaoSouphy.
In March, we decided we’d give PhoLaoSouphy it’s second annual run with three weekends planned and the option to continue if we were doing well. Secretly I had hoped we continued to do well like we have previously and maybe this was our path to getting out own space. Our first week in March did amazing our 50 seat venue packed with lines still waiting on food and standing room only. Second week came and it was noticeably slower with the news of Covid19 on the rise and by Sunday that weekend, I decided we should stop right before “stay at home” was announced. Since then, I’ve been at home working on my many passion projects like teaching people to meditate and be aware, cooking, cultural crafts & traditions and DIY via Facebook live and zoom. I’ve also been sewing aprons made of traditional Lao indigo textiles as well as in the kitchen crafting recipes as well as working on the bottling of my most requested sauces from the PhoLaoSouphy pop-up hoping for an official release soon. I hope that although I can’t be popping up with the same social functions as before these products will be just as popular and grow our circle of amazing supporters.
What I’m most happy about is that most weeks since stay at home and with people struggling, I’ve been releasing a menu to family, friends and followers for pick-up to anyone wants my cooking or is struggling and needs food. I give people a suggested but not required voluntary contribution price and people are able to give whatever they are comfortable with or not at all without judgment, I’m just glad that I have the ability to give to others through my food like people gave to me through my food when I needed it. Many might not understand the importance of why early on I put so much emphasis on my mother but to me this story is a homage to her. It’s her ability to execute such amazing dishes that supported a refugee family through tough times, it’s her recipes and the memory of her flavors that excelled me in the ability to cook, it’s her cooking through me that has LA lining up wrapped around and waiting patiently, it’s her passing valuable culture and faith to me that are feeding people that are struggling and it’s her food that’s pulled me out of my darkest time and not only gave me life once but resuscitated me and brought me back to life stronger, bigger and better than before.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I definitely would have to say it has been far from smooth roads sometimes dead ends, sometimes falling off cliffs grabbing onto vines. From early on, it was hard to find clients that wanted to hire me and then going on to open a food business and doing pop-ups with no food industry or restaurant knowledge. Every step is a learning curve, even things you didn’t think you had to know suddenly you have to find out. I think the biggest battle is finding the strength and energy to keep going what it seems like there’s not enough time and there’s no possible way. I’ve nowhere near conquered and there will be many more obstacles that will come my way but what I’ve learned through my previous struggles is that within every bad situation is something good hidden within to teach us, to better us and to get us closer to the best form of us.
Alright – so let’s talk business. What else should we know about you and your career so far?
My self-branded business is called With Tharathip which revolves around social entertainment. People who know me call me the New or Lao Martha Stewart. I do event design, wedding planning, culture, home, decorating, traditions but currently what I’m best known for and has really grown my following is my cooking even more specifically my Lao cuisine pop-up restaurant known as PhoLaoSouphy “the philosophy of Lao noodle soups and street food”. The easy answer to this question would be Lao food doesn’t exist in Central Los Angeles making us uniquely different but for me that’s not enough. I specialize in Lao cooking in the way I remember my mom making it when I was growing up, sometimes she doesn’t even remember her own dishes nowadays. But we aren’t just a Lao restaurant concept we are a Lao food experience concept. Although I work really hard to make sure the food has to be good we look at everything from top to bottom and what other elements can we add in which intrigues all the senses to make you feel like you’re in a Lao home, a Lao pub or sitting on the corner at a Lao street vendor. I use my cultural knowledge, combined with my event design abilities and food memory to create an all around experience that you can’t find anywhere else.
With the pandemic going on we cannot do business as we typically do I am working on bottling up our most requested sauces to hopefully have for sale. What we have is sukiyaki sauce which is what I call an all purpose sauce most commonly used as a noodle soup topping or condiment it can be used for many different things. I use mine for hot pot dipping sauces, I use it when I do Lao bbq which is similar to Korean bbq, I use it as a vegetable dip, to stir fry noodles and when I’m too lazy I just make some instant noodles then put a dollop on top. Our second sauce is a sweet chili oil roasted dipping sauce called jeow bong. Jeow bong is commonly eaten as a dipping sauce for rice meats and vegetables. Our third sauce is more used for cooking than as a condiment, the most common ingredient is this unrefined unfiltered seasoned funky fish sauce called padek. For many people who cook Lao food or are interested in Lao food a good quality padek is hard to find with many people asking me for my padek.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite childhood memory are of attending Lao festivals on major Lao holiday celebrations. Everyone is in a festive mood, all your friends and family are there, the best foods, the culture, the music and art. It was everything I love all in one place.
Pricing:
- Sukiyaki sauce $6.99
- Padek $6.99
- Jeow Bong $6.99
- All three sample promo pack $17.00
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
Image Credit:
Rufino Soulisak
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