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 For
over three decades, restaurateur Keo Sananikone has been
at the epicenter of America's increasing fascination with
the cuisine of Thailand. The popularity of his Thai
restaurants in Hawaii. Keo explains, stems "not from doing
extraordinary things; it comes from consistently doing the
ordinary things extraordinarily well." The recipes from his
famed restaurants---are not known with glitz but for their
savory, spicy Thai flavors. The awards garnered by Keo's
restaurants speak for themselves. Bon Appetit voted Keo's
"American's Best Thai Restaurant" and Gourmet named it one
of "America's Top Tables". Newsweek described Keo's as " One
of the choicest dining spots in Honolulu."
Keo Sananikone, who has called Honolulu home since 1975, has
ties to Hawaii and the islands and to the United States
dates from before his family fled Laos following the
Communist takeover. Keo Sananikone was born and raised in
Laos. In mid-summer of 1968, Keo first came to Hawaii at age
15 on his way to a private college preparatory school in
Ojai, California. Keo graduated from Ojai Valley School in
1970. And in the fall of 1970, Keo entered the University of
Washington, and graduated in 1974 with a bachelor degree in
Architecture. Following graduation, he attended Japanese
business courses at the Japan America Institute of
Management and at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan.
Keo's first job was a dishwasher and waiter at Ojai Valley School
where all the students took turns working in the dining room. Keo
landed his first paying job at the University of Washington as a
cashier at the University cafeteria. Keo is multilingual, in addition
to Laotian and English, Keo is fluent in Thai, Vietnamese, and three
Chinese dialects - Mandarin, Cantonese and Teochew. Laotian, Vietnamese,
Chinese, French and Thai food were all prepared in the kitchen of his
family home, a multicultural household that would inspire him to pursue a
career in the culinary arts.
Keo started his career as a restaurateur officially in 1977
with the opening of his Mekong Restaurant in Honolulu. In
December of 1981, a second restaurant was opened and named Keo's Thai Cuisine. August of 1982 saw the opening of
another restaurant called Mekong II. In the summer of 1985,
Keo published his cookbook, Keo's Thai Cuisine. Keo acquired
two farms on the Northshore of Oahu in 1986 and began
growing his own flowers, spices, and vegetables. In the
winter of 1985, Ten Speed Press, purchased the publishing
rights in Keo's cookbooks and began marketing his cookbook
worldwide. The August of 1986 saw the opening of yet another
restaurant called Keo's at Ward Centre. In the December of
1997, Keo moved his flagship Kapahulu Keo's to a new
location to Waikiki, now the grandest and most famous of all
his restaurants. In December 1999, Keoni by Keo's was opened
in Waikiki, serving Thai and American food. Today, he owns
and operates five restaurants with over two hundred
employees and continues to delight diners the world over.
Why did a Laotian open a Thai restaurant? "Laotian and Thai
language, culture, and religion are very similar," Keo says.
"But the food is very different. I felt Laotian food would
not have been successful in America at that time. Laotian
food is very basic and simple, and Thai food is very exotic
and colorful."
The secret of Keo's success has been to create a restaurant
as he wanted it. "I visited a lot of ethnic restaurants in
America and around the world," he said. "In many ethnic
restaurants, the food would be good but the ambience was
wrong. Or the ambience would be right but the food and
service were not. I put in everything I personally liked in
restaurants to create my restaurants."
Along the way, he found time to write a cookbook, Keo's Thai
Cuisine, beautifully illustrated with photos by Lou
Harrington. When no publisher was interested in the book,
Keo published it himself in the summer of 1985 and sold out
the first printing of 15,000 copies in a month. "Then five
publishers wanted it," he laughs. The book has now sold over
100,000 copies, including 9,000 copies in Thailand and 5,000
copies in Australia and Canada. |
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