Vanda Asapahu, owner of Ayara Thai Cuisine and Ayara Thai Sauces went to college at UCLA and graduate school at Yale, then spent four years living and traveling/working through Thailand before returning home to Los Angeles, CA. During Vanda’s stay in her native country, she took extensive notes, which included absorbing the Bangkok street food scene and reviving old family recipes. After cooking with relatives and eating her way through the streets and countryside, it is these old recipes and new flavors that Vanda brings back to share at Ayara Thai. While her mother, Anna Asapahu, still helms the kitchen, Vanda is the vanguard, taking up the torch of her family’s culinary tradition at Ayara Thai.
Vanda and Ayara Thai have been featured on Jonathon Gold’s List of Best Restaurants, Los Angeles Magazine, the LA Times, Food and Wine, LA Magazine, and Food Network and have partnered with many celebrity chefs throughout the world. Most recently, Ayara Thai was one of three Thai restaurants in Los Angeles to receive a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and became Thai Select's Raising Star Chef.