Thai cuisine

Thai cuisine is the national cuisine of Thailand. Balance, detail, and variety are of paramount significance to Thai chefs. In his book The Principles of Thai Cookery, celebrity chef, writer, and authority on Thai cuisine McDang wrote:

"What is Thai food? Every country in the world has its own food profile. It reflects its culture, environment, ingenuity and values. In the case of Thailand, these words come to mind: intricacy; attention to detail; texture; color; taste; and the use of ingredients with medicinal benefits, as well as good flavor.

Thai cooking places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components and a spicy edge. It is known for its complex interplay of at least three and up to four or five fundamental taste senses in each dish or the overall meal: sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy. Australian chef David Thompson, a prolific chef and expert on Thai food, observed that unlike many other cuisines:

Thai cuisine (อาหารไทย : Ar-Han-Thai) is one of the most popular cuisine in the world. In 2011, seven of Thailand's popular dishes made it to the list of the "World's 50 Most Delicious Foods (Readers' Pick)"— a worldwide online poll of 35,000 people by CNN Travel. Thailand had more dishes on the list than any other country. They were tom yam goong (4th), pad Thai (5th), som tam (6th), massaman curry (10th), green curry (19th), Thai fried rice (24th) and moo nam tok (36th).

Thai

When used as an adjective, Thai refers to anything that originates from Thailand. As a noun it may refer to:

See also

Thai basil

Thai basil (Thai: โหระพา, rtgs: horapha, ISO: h̄oraphā, pronounced [hǒː.rá(ʔ).pʰāː]; Vietnamese: húng quế) is a type of basil native to Southeast Asia that has been cultivated to provide distinctive traits. Widely used throughout Southeast Asia, its flavor, described as anise- and licorice-like and slightly spicy, is more stable under high or extended cooking temperatures than that of sweet basil. Thai basil has small, narrow leaves, purple stems, and pink-purple flowers.

Taxonomy and nomenclature

Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) has multiple cultivars, of which Thai basil, O. basilicum var. thyrsiflora, is one variety. Thai basil itself has multiple cultivars. One cultivar commonly grown in the United States is 'Siam Queen'. Thai basil may sometimes be called anise basil or licorice basil, in reference to its anise- and licorice-like scent and taste, but it is different from the Western strains bearing these same names. Occasionally, Thai basil may also be called cinnamon basil, which is also its literal name in Vietnamese, but cinnamon basil typically refers to a separate cultivar of basil. The genus name Ocimum is derived from the Greek word meaning "to smell", which is appropriate for most members of the plant family Lamiaceae, also known as the mint family. With over 40 cultivars of basil, this abundance of flavors, aromas, and colors leads to confusion when identifying specific cultivars.

Gordon Ramsay

Gordon James Ramsay, OBE (born 8 November 1966) is a Scottish-born British chef and restaurateur. His restaurants have been awarded 16 Michelin stars in total and currently hold 9. His signature restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, London, has held 3 Michelin stars since 2001. Ramsay is known for presenting TV programmes about competitive cookery and food, such as the British series Hell's Kitchen, The F Word, and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, along with the American versions of Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, MasterChef, MasterChef Junior and Hotel Hell. In 2015, Forbes listed his earnings at $60 million for the previous 12 months, and ranked him the 21st highest earning celebrity in the world.

Early life

Ramsay was born on 8 November 1966 in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland. From the age of five, he was raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. Ramsay is the second of four children. He has an older sister, Diane; a younger brother, Ronnie, who Ramsay revealed had been behind bars for heroin possession as a juvenile; and a younger sister, Yvonne. Ramsay's father, Gordon James Senior (died 1997), was – at various times – a swimming pool manager, a welder, and a shopkeeper; his sister Yvonne and their mother, Helen (maiden name: Cosgrove), have been nurses.

Food Network

Food Network (legally known as Television Food Network) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture between Scripps Networks Interactive (which owns 70% of the network) and the Tribune (FN) Cable Ventures Inc. (which owns the remaining 30%). Despite this ownership structure, the channel is managed as a division of Scripps Networks Interactive. The channel airs both specials and regular episodic programs about food and cooking.

In addition to its headquarters in New York City, Food Network has offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Jersey City, Cincinnati, and Knoxville, Tennessee.

As of February 2015, Food Network is available to approximately 96,931,000 pay television households (83.3% of households with television) in the United States.

History

Food Network was founded on April 19, 1993 as TV Food Network and was launched on November 23 of that year; its legal name remains Television Food Network, G.P. Within a few years, the network had shortened its on-air brand name, removing the "TV" from its name. It was developed by Reese Schonfeld (one of the founders of CNN), under the direction of Providence Journal president Trygve Myrhen. Its original partners included the Journal itself, Adelphia, Scripps-Howard, Continental Cablevision, Cablevision, and most importantly, the Tribune Company, which provided the network's technical output. The network was initially launched as a preview in September 1993 with two initial shows featuring David Rosengarten, Donna Hanover, and Robin Leach.