How the chef at Anajak Thai in LA left his Disney animation job to help out at the family restaurant, and made it one of the city’s most popular
- Justin Pichetrungsi was a Disney animator before moving to his family’s Anajak Thai restaurant in Los Angeles to help out after his father had a stroke
- He recently won a James Beard Award for California’s best chef and Anajak is now one of the Californian city’s buzziest eateries
Justin Pichetrungsi is quickly becoming one of America’s most exciting chefs.
It’s not the path he set out on, though – he used to lead the animation team for some of Disney’s biggest franchises, then craft dishes for his family’s restaurant at night.
But since taking over Anajak Thai in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, in 2019, Pichetrungsi has moulded the 43-year-old venue into an award-winning eatery praised by some of America’s most prominent food critics.
Pichetrungsi recently discovered that his mother took him to Anajak Thai soon after he was born; he’s worked there in some capacity for most of his life.
“I was always busing and waiting tables, I was cooking with my dad during summers,” Pichetrungsi said. “And that’s how I got to understand the way that my dad did things, the way that my dad cooked.”
However, after finishing school, Pichetrungsi enrolled at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, where he got into art and filmmaking.
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He said he got a job as a concept artist, became an art director at Disney, and began working on Marvel and Pixar projects, as well as “a lot of ‘Star Wars’.”
But most nights, Pichetrungsi would still help out at his parents’ restaurant, which was often short-staffed. He also taught classes at ArtCenter, underlining his willingness to burn the candle at both ends.
In June 2019, Pichetrungsi’s father had a stroke. Disney gave the animator four months of leave to help out at Anajak Thai while his father recovered.
When he started cooking in the kitchen, Pichetrungsi and the other chefs at Anajak Thai initially struggled to interpret his dad’s recipes. Then, when pandemic restrictions mostly shut down the restaurant industry, Pichetrungsi saw a chance to innovate.
“It was a dark time for many, and for the restaurant industry it was a quiet time, a time for us to be pensive about what we wanted to do,” he said.
Since Pichetrungsi stepped up to the helm, Anajak Thai has taken the LA food scene by storm. In 2022 the Los Angeles Times named Anajak Thai its restaurant of the year. It is also listed in the Michelin Guide.
Last month, Pichetrungsi also won a James Beard Foundation Award, crowning him its pick for the best chef in California. He credited his win to his parents, whom he called “my greatest allies,” but added: “They argue with me a lot”.
Pichetrungsi’s new menu has been the highlight of the restaurant’s resurgence.
His “Thai Taco Tuesdays”, born during the pandemic restrictions, sit patrons outside in the restaurant’s alley with queues going around the block. UK newspaper The Times described one woman punching the air in delight when staff told her she’d only have to wait an hour for a table.
Otherwise, Pichetrungsi said the design of the restaurant is nothing special. “There’s nothing majorly modern. It’s a nice neighbourhood Thai spot with a s*** ton of wine in the centre of the room, and it’s a wild little spot.”
There’s a Kobe Bryant jersey at the back of the room that Pichetrungsi said diners can see as they enter. He said that, and the signature wine stand, are all that’s really changed since he took over from his parents.
For now, Pichetrungsi is happy to continue writing the restaurant’s story and doesn’t crave a Michelin star.
“What we’d like to do is just to keep people energised; we want our guests and diners and the staff to feel like they’re part of the story that’s being written.”
