David Thompson is renowned as a world authority on Thai food and his Thai restaurants and cookbooks have won critical acclaim. First visiting Thailand in 1986, David soon moved to the country where he lived for three years, immersing himself in its cooking and culture.

Returning to his Sydney home in 1992, he opened his first Thai restaurant Darley Street Thai, which won numerous awards, including best Thai restaurant in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide for every year it was open.

In 2001, David was asked by COMO Hotels and Resorts to open a restaurant at the Halkin Hotel in London. Nahm opened to immediate critical success, receiving a Michelin star within six months of opening and garnering David the London Chef of the Year award at the 2003 Carlton Evening Standard Food Awards.

Throughout this time, David worked on Thai Food, a critically acclaimed cookbook considered one of the best ever written. The book has won almost every major cookbook award and was followed up with another book Thai Street Food, in 2010. That same year, David opened nahm at the Metropolitan in Bangkok which has been recognised as one of the world’s best restaurants for many years running. In 2014, nahm was the winner of San Pellegrino’s Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants.

David Thompson returned to Australia in 2015 with Long Chim Perth, a triumph of casual dining, combining traditional street food with contemporary flavours.