Jet
Tila
Chef Jet Tila’s career in Asian cooking began practically at his birth in Alhambra, CA, where he grew up learning the ancient traditions of Thai cookery in his family’s restaurant and food market. It was at the ripe old age of ten that Jet finally abandoned his lifelong dream of becoming a policeman, after discovering a love for helping his Cantonese grandmother in her home kitchen. By thirteen, Jet was making appetizers at the family’s Thai restaurants, and at 22, he was teaching cooking classes in his back yard – a phenomenon that caught the attention of the Los Angeles Times.
Two years later, already armed with an extensive knowledge of Asian cooking, Jet was inspired to formalize his skills with a Le Cordon Bleu education. In culinary school, he discovered new and inventive ways to approach Eastern ingredients with Western techniques. Jet also completed an intensive program of study at the California Sushi Academy and worked as an intern in the test kitchen at the Los Angeles Times, where he was able to cook “everything from everywhere in the world.”
Now 28, the gifted young chef continues to garner commendation for his work. He is best known for his Pad Thai, but in addition, The Los Angeles Times awarded Jet’s Tom Yum soup Best Recipe of 1999 and his Tom Kha Gai soup among the Ten Best of 2000. Jet believes strongly in finding the right regional ingredients and tools for the job, using high quality products, trusting one’s palette and, most importantly, always having fun. Jet’s playful enthusiasm has made him a popular instructor at both The New School of Cooking and Sur la Table in Los Angeles. “My job is to inform and motivate you,” he tells his students, adding “but you’ll never catch me taking myself too seriously.”
In addition to working as a chef and teaching, Jet co-owns the Royal Thai Cuisine restaurants in Newport, La Jolla, Laguna and San Diego. He also owns Bangkok Market, the first Thai import company in the U.S. If you are looking for a sticky rice steamer, durian fruit or frozen crickets, Jet carries every conceivable Southeast Asian cooking need and many Latin American ingredients in the market’s 40,000 square foot warehouse, and in his storefront near Los Angeles’ Thai Town.
Jet has written two cover pieces and several articles for the Food section of the Los Angeles Times and has been featured in Los Angeles magazine. He has appeared on Food TV’s “The Best Of” and “Food Finds;” on HGTV’s “Smart Solutions;” on PBS’s “Visiting With Huell Howser;” and he is a frequent guest on NPR’s “Good Food” with Evan Kleiman. Along with his work, Jet loves saltwater fishing, his 90-pound black lab and his five-pound terrier.