Chaowarat Arte Assavakavinvong

Born: 

Ayutthaya, Thailand. 

History: 

Chef Arte was born and raised in Ayutthaya, Thailand. His favourite childhood pastime was to spend time alongside his mother cooking and visiting local food markets. 

Moving to Australia to explore a career in cooking, Arte’s professional journey began in 2007 at Poppy’s restaurant in Camberwell. After completing his diploma at the William Angliss Institute in 2009, he furthered his experience at Seamstress restaurant. 

While Arte’s knowledge of other cuisines continued to grow in Australia, his passion had always been for Thai food. In 2011, Arte joined the team at Longrain to work alongside Martin Boetz and quickly moved up the ranks to Sous Chef shortly after joining; this gave him the experience needed to lead the opening team at the Village People Hawker Hall as Head Chef. 

In 2018, Arte accepted the position as Head Chef at Longrain and continues to evolve the restaurant’s menu, while maintaining a strong understanding and respect of the original Longrain vision.  

Arte is an extremely well-regarded Chef, running masterclasses at the South Melbourne Market and featuring on Channel Ten’s‘The Living Room’ alongside Miguel Maestre.  

He travels home to Thailand regularly to revisit his roots, where he has competed in food styling competitions and Iron Chef Thailand.  

Have you always wanted to be a Chef? 

Yes, I have. I always loved to cook with my mother when I was young. 

How would you define your style? 

Sharing style  - Thai people love to sit down and share a meal with family or friends. There is always a generous amount of food in the middle of the table, where everyone can eat together. I love sharing so that I can try as many dishes as I can, to experience everything about food from different cultures. 

What is your feature flavour these days? 

Sweet, salty, sour, bitter and hot - these flavours are very common in Thai cuisine and need to be balanced with each other. 

Obsessive-compulsive about? 

I love to use local ingredients, fresh and seasonal produce. If I could, I would like to do all the shopping myself, or even better grow my own vegetables! 

Your greatest culinary influence: 

French and Chinese. 

What do you love about this business? 

I love the people. Hospitality is such an interesting industry, with such a diverse group of people from all walks of life. 

An ingredient you can’t live without? 

Ha ha ha! Fish sauce and chilli. 

Most ‘eyebrow-raising’ menu item? 

Betel leaf, seared scallop, peanuts, galangal, ginger, lime and salmon roe. 

Signature dish: 

Yum Khao Tod: crispy rice, pork, mint, chilli, roasted peanuts and iceberg lettuce.