Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon is an award-winning chef, restaurateur and author best known for her restaurant Kalaya, one of the world’s highest regarded Thai restaurants.

A career flight attendant from Trang, Thailand, Nok embarked on her second act at age 50 with the opening of Kalaya—a restaurant named for her mother that celebrates the bright, bold, and unapologetically spicy flavors of Southern Thai cuisine. Upon opening in 2019, Kalaya was featured on Esquire’s and Food & Wine’s “Best New Restaurant in America” lists and has received James Beard Award nominations for “Best New Restaurant” in 2020 and “Outstanding Restaurant” in 2025 and 2026. Nok received the James Beard Award for “Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic” in 2023, was named one of the most influential people in the world on the prestigious TIME100 list in 2025, and received a spot on Forbes’ “50 Over 50” list the same year. As part of the inaugural North America’s 50 Best Restaurant list, which debuted in 2025, Kalaya was ranked No. 7 and Nok was named “North America’s Best Female Chef.” Kalaya was also included in Michelin’s inaugural 2025 Philadelphia selection, earning a “Michelin Recommended” designation in the Northeast Cities Guide.

Growing up in Southern Thailand, Nok’s affinity for food and flavor was established by working alongside her mother, Kalaya, who ran a successful curry paste stall in her local food market, Talat Yan Ta Khao. While traveling internationally as a flight attendant for 17 years, Nok’s culinary lens was honed further and ultimately led her to open an Italian restaurant in Thailand in the early aughts. After moving to Philadelphia in 2010 and a short-lived “retirement,” Nok, never one to be idle, opted to dive back into the restaurant world by attending the French Culinary Institute in New York (now the Institute of Culinary Education). On the other side of that training, she landed gigs at The Rittenhouse Hotel and with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, while an emerging side business catering out of her home gained popularity and eventually inspired the opening of Kalaya.

Alongside food, Nok’s lifelong passion is fashion. She worked in and around fashion while she was a flight attendant, and today her notoriously impeccable style has been featured in New York Magazine and Philadelphia Style Magazine. Additionally, Nok has been named one of the “Most Influential Philadelphians” by Philadelphia Magazine consecutively in 2023, 2024 and 2025. In 2022, Nok attended the “Chef Bootcamp for Policy and Change” hosted by the James Beard. Nok’s TV appearances include the Philadelphia episode of Netflix’s Somebody Feed Phil in 2021, and in 2024 a dedicated Season 7 episode on Netflix’s Emmy-nominated Chef’s Table. 

Nok resides in South Philadelphia with her husband Ziv and dogs, TiTi and Gingi. She spends her free time with neighbors and gardening.