Known as Chef Pam, Pichaya Soontornyanakij is an award-winning chef and TV personality who became, at age 21, the youngest chef to win the 2011 Asia Youth Hope Cooking competition by Les Disciples d’Escoffier. Since then she’s had a stellar career that includes the opening of Potong, which has been awarded a Michelin star and is ranked number 35 among Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023, and number 88 on the World’s Best Restaurants 2023 list. Her work at Potong was also cited among the reasons for her being winning the Asia's Best Female Chef Award in 2024.

At Potong, Chef Pam highlights Thai Chinese cuisine using techniques—“more European, and a little bit French”, she told Tatler in 2023— informed by her training and experience, in a heritage building that used to be her family’s Chinese-medicine pharmacy.

She was one of the top graduates of The Culinary Institute of America, and has worked in some of the world’s finest establishments, including Jean Georges in New York and Grand Hyatt Erawan in Bangkok. Before Potong, she had already started Smoked, now a multi-outlet restaurant that focuses on Texan-inspired barbecue slow-smoked over local hardwoods like lychee and tamarind; and a private-dining beef omakase called The Table by Chef Pam. Additionally, she was the youngest and only female judge on Top Chef Thailand, and heads her own show, Pam's Kitchen.