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Thai cuisine is a language with its own grammar and poetry. I decode centuries-old manuscripts to bring you wisdom that transforms cooking into culinary fluency..
Hanuman – Founder

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Hanuman Aspler — Thai food scholar, founder of Thaifoodmaster, co-founder of Three Trees Doi Saket. In Thailand since 1989. Thirty-plus years researching Siamese cuisine, with a specialism in pre-WWII manuscripts. Hundreds of students taught in person, including chefs from Michelin-recognised kitchens.

This page is members-only. Subscribe to read his work and cook from it — the manuscript translations, the masterclasses, the recipe catalogue, the long-form articles, and direct access through the monthly Q&A.

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The Siamese Recipe Archive — primary-source translations

Lady Plean Passakornrawong’s Maae Khruaa Huaa Bpaa (1908). Siam’s first printed cookbook. All five volumes complete and translated.
Ibrahim Haji Roshidin Tuan — Islamic Cook (1929) and Muslim Cook (1938). A working Thonburi caterer’s manual: weddings, funerals, hired events.
Jeeb Bunnag (1933). Palace-trained under Lady Plean; signed her books with her home address so cooks could write to her.
Mom Ying Supha — Pornthip series (1949–50). Royal-kitchen tested. Thai, Chinese, and Western cooking across four volumes.
Gingganok Gaanjanaaphaa (1935). Over 200 preparations, none repeated, drawn from the special cooks of the royal kitchen.
Thanom Palaboot (1941). Four-volume household manual, ~800 recipes, compiled by a teacher in Maha Sarakham.
Memorial book culinary selections. Household manuscripts preserved in cremation volumes.

Each recipe attributed by author, date, and source manuscript. Archaic weights (chang, tamlung, baht, salueng, tanan) converted to grams and millilitres, with the originals retained alongside. Original voice translated as written — including the steps that read oddly today.

50+ Masterclasses

Video courses on the structural problems of Thai cooking. A cross-section of the catalogue:

Aromatic Primer for Thai Cuisine — Part 1 (Aug 2025). The biology and chemistry of aroma perception: taste receptors, smell pathways, temperature sensors, and how fat, starch, salt, and acid control aromatic timing.
Patterns: Decoding the Complexity of Siamese Curry Paste. A four-tier analytical framework that reads curry paste as layered “sub-pastes,” each carrying its own cultural, medicinal, and philosophical components.
Aromatic Alchemy: The Art and Science of Pounded Curry Pastes. What happens inside the mortar — oil release, moisture, heat, oxidation, enzymatic reactions — and why hand-pounded paste differs from machine-blended.
Reflections on the Lifecycle of Heat (Green Curry; แกงเขียวหวาน). Advanced flavor layering. Introduces the concept of “animating flavor” to hold vibrancy and mature complexity together in the same pot.
Curry Paste Permeability. A framework for adapting paste to different ingredients without resorting to recipe-by-recipe instructions.
Minced-Bird Style Curries (แกงสับนก; Gaaeng Sap Nohk). Historic minced-meat curries built around dove, fish, and small catch — traced from early-20th-century rural cooking to contemporary kitchens.
Khaao Man Sohm Dtam (ข้าวมันส้มตำ). Reconstruction of the first recorded papaya salad recipe (1935) and the full samrub it belonged to: coconut-enriched rice, tamarind chili relish, crispy-sweet pork threads, salted fish in egg batter.

Plus four foundational professional guides: Siamese Chili Relishes (น้ำพริก), Thai Curries (แกงไทย), Thai Salads (เรื่องยำๆ), and The Art of Siamese Old-School Menu Design (สํารับอาหารไทย). New masterclasses added monthly.

700+ recipes

Indexed by region, technique, source manuscript, and origin. A sample of the catalogue:

Dtohm Yam Bplaa Chaawn (ต้มยำปลาช่อน) — Mom Som Jeen Rajaanupraphan’s 1890 tom yum with snakehead fish, roasted chili jam, and green mango. The earliest published tom yum recipe in the archive.
Gaaeng Khuaa Phrik Baang Chaang (แกงคั่วพริกบางช้าง) — Princess Dissakul’s 1933 smoked-fish curry on a phrik khing base, finished in coconut cream and served over khanom jeen with pickled garlic.
Gaaeng Sai Graawk Muu Haaeng (แกงไส้กรอกหมูแห้ง) — Princess Yaovabha’s 1935 coconut-cream soup with sweet Chinese sausage, lemongrass, and bruised shallots, from her cookbook Sai Yaowapa. Documents the entry of Chinese preserved meats into palace cuisine.
Gaaeng Khiaao (แกงเขียว) — Mrs. Yim Pichaiyat Bunnag’s 1920s aristocratic green curry built on ghee and yogurt, with chicken liver, gizzard, and heart, and a roasted spice base of cinnamon, clove, and cardamom.
Yam Dtreen Rohng (ยำตรีณรงค์) — c.1935 three-fruit, three-protein yam from Ms. Booree Thohnsak’s Pathum Thani memorial cookbook. Pomelo, rose apple, pomegranate, river shrimp, chicken, pork, sour-salty-sweet dressing.
Gaaeng Mo:hng (แกงโมง) — Mrs. Paan Nanthaaphiwat’s 1953 Chonburi regional curry with fermented shrimp paste, grilled catfish, and young watermelon.

Each entry carries its original Thai name, romanisation, source attribution where applicable, and the working ingredient list.

Photo and video step-throughs

Filmed in the kitchen studio. Masterclass video and recipe walkthroughs cover:

Mortar-and-pestle paste preparation — order of ingredients, oil release, moisture changes, heat development inside the mortar, and the consistency cues that mark a finished paste. (Aromatic Alchemy, Patterns.)
Pounding effects on aroma — what hand-pounded versus blender-built pastes look and behave like at each stage.
Curry paste roasting and colour shift in dishes built on dried chilies.
The “animating flavor” sequence for green curry, demonstrated step by step. (Reflections on the Lifecycle of Heat.)
Permeability adjustments — adapting one paste across different proteins and vegetables in real time. (Curry Paste Permeability.)
Recipe-level technique videos across the 700+ recipe library: knife work, grilling, frying, fermentation, plating.

Articles and research

Hanuman’s long-form work — historical, technical, ethnographic. A representative selection:

How to Read Historical Recipes: A Four-Dimensional Approach to Siamese Culinary (Sept 2025). Reading manuscripts on four levels — literal, contextual, subtextual, narrative — answering to four governors: availability, cultural appropriateness, culinary tradition, and superstition.
Chilies in Siam — Three Genomes, Four Trade Routes, One Culinary Revolution (Aug 2025). Genetic evidence overturning the Portuguese-only origin story. Chilies entered Southeast Asia through Portuguese, Islamic maritime, Chinese overland, and Indian Ocean networks operating in parallel.
Jeeb Bunnag — The Teacher Who Preserved a Culinary Empire (Aug 2025). Biography of Mrs. Samaknantapol and a structural reading of her 1933 Samrub Raawp Bpee — 365 complete daily Siamese meal sets.
King Chulalongkorn’s Travels and Culinary Collections from Java. Research series tracing Javanese dishes that entered Siamese aristocratic kitchens following Rama V’s three Java visits in 1871, 1896, and 1901.
Siamese Culinary Legends of the Rattanakosin Period. Biographical series on the cooks, noblewomen, and authors who shaped bpaa ga sin (ปากะศิลป์) — the Siamese culinary arts.