About Us

The Three Generation Organic Cooking and Farming Academy is a ten rai (five-acre) organic farm and kitchen classroom located at the Three Generation Community for Learning in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Founded by chef and author Su-Mei Yu, our Academy combines the tastes, techniques, and traditions of Thai home cooking and farming.

Thai food contrasts tastes and intense flavors to achieve drama and entice the palate. Our Academy opens the door to young students, Chiang Mai locals and visitors to Thailand, giving them all a chance to explore this rich, tantalizing cuisine through a variety of programs.

We also provide cultural notes, medicinal antidotes and cooking lore throughout the lessons, drawing from our instructors’ traditional Thai upbringing.

It's hard to imagine a better start for anyone wishing to "cook Thai" than with our novel approach, which perfectly balances recipes and instruction to make it an innovative learning experience.

Click here to read Su-Mei’s story of starting the Three Generation Organic Cooking and Farming Academy.

Mission & Vision

The mission of the Three Generation Cooking and Farming Academy is to create and sustain an educational farming and cooking program for students and international families and travelers to Thailand which values the legacy of ancient Thai tradition by showing great respect for the land and taking pleasure in cooking and eating.

The Three Generation Community for Learning is an international community of learners across all generations, working together for a sustainable future. To this end, the Three Generation Organic Cooking and Farming Academy is founded with the vision to be a showcase and a learning center for authentic Thai cooking and food-related tradition and culture.

With our organic farm surrounded by rice fields and villages, we acknowledge and preserve the simple way of life and practices of the Thai people.

Staff

Nittaya Papasak (Nid), Director

Nid was born and raised in the countryside in Lamphun province, not far from Chiang Mai. Her mother is a very traditional Lanna lady, so Nid grew up with authentic Lanna food and cooking methods as a steady part of her day.

At the university she got used to cooking for herself, and that really brought out the cooking instinct in her, so much so that she decided to take formal training.

During her many travels over the last seven years she has had opportunities to improve her skills at restaurants along the way, and has discovered how fun it can be to teach Thai cooking to foreigners. She had the opportunity to exchange cultures through food, and found out that a lot of foreigners love Thai food.

In 2006 Nid decided to stop traveling and start teaching Thai cooking in Chiang Mai, and now teachs at the Three Generation Organic Cooking Academy. She enjoys it because she prefers to teach the correct way of Thai cooking to foreigners, and because it reminds her of the way her mother was cooking in her childhood, using plants and herbs home-grown in the garden, using traditional cooking methods and emphasizing the medicinal benefits Thai ingredients have on our well-being.

Malee Devakul Na Ayudhya, Chef Teacher

Malee grew up and lived in the farm-countryside as a young girl in the far northeastern part of Thailand known as Isan. At an early age, true to Thai culture, Malee, like all girls of the house, was responsible for the gathering, preparing and serving of the food for the family.

Malee brings years of valuable resources to the Three Generation Cooking Academy as she lived this simple, yet sustainable way of life with her family; gathering food from their kitchen-garden, foraging in the nearby woods for plants and mushrooms, cooking over a wood fire, using authentic Thai cooking implements, and preserving and fermenting herbs and vegetables that were not available year round. No chemicals were used in their garden-kitchen and knowledge and use of herbs and vegetables for their medicinal properties was common practice.

Malee furthered her education for a Bachelor’s Degree in Humanity Science in Bangkok at Ramkhamhaeng University while also working to support herself. During those years of wide experiences, Malee had an opportunity to volunteer and be part of the elite team to work and teach Environmental Education for the Chao Phraya Barge Programs (presently, the Magic Eyes Chao Phraya Barge Programs of The Three Generation Community for Learning) in its early developmental years. This program now has achieved world-wide acclaim. On board the barge, cooking with students was always done in the boat galley and was a hands-on activity for both volunteers and students.

With her BA, experience and her love of teaching, Malee made it to Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand to join the academic team of the bilingual boarding school, Tridhos Three Generation School Village. This predecessor of Three Generation Community for Learning emphasized global culture, Thai culture via student-centered teaching-learning, and Environmental Education techniques as successful teaching tools. During these years Malee was trained and gained additional experiences in the field of teaching, especially, the fun and effective teaching ways of experiential learning. After three meaningful years she decided to continue her higher education by studying full-time for a Master’s Degree in Education at Chiang Mai University.

Now Malee is back with her higher degree, pleased to be doing what she loves - cooking and teaching - with Three Generation Organic Cooking Academy.

Paisid Nawlad (Ahn), Assistant Chef Teacher

Ahn was born and grew up in the very small city in the north of Thailand called Phrae. He currently lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Even as a young child he can remember being interested in learning about foods, especially Thai food. Ahn learned how to cook from his mom, who he claims was a great cook indeed. Her inspiration was instrumental in his decision to become a chef. When he started junior high school, he had his first opportunity to take a cooking class. Studying diligently, he imagined that he would eventually teach others about Thai food.

At Lampang Rajabhat University Ahn learned English for Tourism while living in Lampang province for four years. Although only able to study Thai food a fraction of the time, upon graduation the opportunity to work at a renowned local cooking school presented itself to him. Ahn taught there for more than three years developing the necessary skills and knowledge.

Now working as the Assistant Chef Teacher of The Prem Cooking Academy, he is thrilled to work with Su-Mei Yu, who can teach him more about Thai food. He hopes to one day be like her.

Khun Ao, Housekeeper

Housekeeper for the Cooking Academy.

Sheena Jackson, Farm Coordinator

Sheena comes from Calgary, Canada and has a Degree in Earth Sciences from the University of Calgary.

While attending University she started a campus and community garden with up to twenty volunteers during the season. All of the excess food went to the Campus Food Bank for hungry underprivileged students. Her childhood house had a large garden in the backyard and growing your own food was just "what you did".

She is happy to be sharing farming experiences with students at the Three Generation Farm. She also enjoys showing people how to live a sustainable lifestyle.

After attending a Permaculture workshop in Mae Taeng Sheena became even more enthusiastic about sustainability and self sufficiency. Designing land to mimic natural systems and creating food forests, and even earthen buildings, is a new fascination for Sheena.

After 4 years in Thailand she is confident in her ability to identify even the oddest Thai vegetable, although what part you eat is always in question!

Farmers

Chut - Farm Manager

: Luck - Security

: Oot - Farm Hand

: Chai - Soil Mixer

: P'Phon - Farm Hand

Our Founder

Su-Mei Yu

Su-Mei Yu is the author of Cracking the Coconut, which won an IACP Cookbook Award in 2000 in the First Book Category, and Asian Grilling. She is chef-owner of the acclaimed Saffron restaurant in San Diego, California.

Su-Mei is one of Southern California's most popular cooking instructors, offering classes filled with Thai cooking techniques, history, stories and recipes researched during annual visits to her native Thailand. She has written for numerous publications, including Fine Cooking magazine, Food and Wine magazine, and the prestigious British journal Petits Propos Culinaire.

Of Chinese heritage, Su-Mei Yu was born and reared in Bangkok. At the age of fifteen, she moved to Kentucky and then to California, where she received her Master's degree in Social Work from San Diego State University. Today, her ongoing desire to re-create the foods and cultural traditions of her youth has made her a foremost authority on authentic Thai cuisine.

In November 2007 Yu established the Three Generation Organic Cooking Academy as its Senior Advisor. Su-Mei has painstakingly designed the overall framework of the Three Generation Organic Cooking Academy. She adheres to strong traditional beliefs that will not be misguided or thwarted. Stringent guidelines have been implemented in staff training, class layout and procedures, farm productivity, cooking implements, recipes, and the environmentally friendly discipline of using "NO" plastic.

This purposeful vision by Su-Mei for the Three Generation Organic Cooking Academy has set us apart from all existing schools in this area and opens us to continued development that strives to bring Thai traditional ways of life back into day to day living, using seasonal and regional produce, cooked in the manner of her ancestors.

From her home in America, she offers continual support to staff to create and oversee the implementation and growth of the program and to assure it stays within the framework she has envisioned. All recipes and class curriculums have been designed by Su-Mei which students are able to enjoy, learn by, and take back to their homes to share with family and friends. Su-Mei will be offering signature cooking classes to all that are interested in her culinary skills on her annual visits to Chiang Mai.

As The Prem Organic Cooking Academy’s Senior Advisor, Su-Mei Yu’s passion for cooking and community activism brings to the Three Generation Community for Learning an abundance of resources, talent and vision.