Chef Nooror Somany Steppe

Founder

Blue Elephant

It is a matter of immense pride for Chef Nooror to be a Master Thai Chef – reputed for her healthy Thai cooking and her range of spices – and to be a champion for women empowerment

Interviewed by LYLE MICHAEL

The Master Thai Chef

Hard work and dedication are the only ‘shortcuts’ to success. Ask Chef Nooror Somany Steppe and she’ll show you how it’s done, having built an empire over the past 40 years, entrenched in Thai cuisine and premium ingredients of the highest quality. She stands as a culinary ambassador, enhancing the cuisine of her roots in the global sphere and moulding future generations of chefs to go out into the world and spread the Thai word.

Blue Elephant Heritage Thai Cuisine is Chef Nooror’s heart and soul poured in, comprising of the restaurants in Bangkok, Phuket, Malta and Copenhagen, the cooking schools in Bangkok and Phuket and the manufacturing line exporting a range of traditional spices to around 45 countries worldwide. Chef Nooror, her cooking techniques and recipes, and her Thai products have all been well-associated with UpperCrust for a few years now. She’s participated as a master chef and exhibited her spice line at the UpperCrust Show, co-launched the 20th anniversary issue of the magazine and hosted us at Blue Elephant in Bangkok. We also carry fond memories of the erstwhile Blue Elephant, Dubai, with its inimitable food and ambience, a must whenever we visited the emirate. When you encounter Chef Nooror, you tend to forge a bond, a relationship, for it’s her quiet demeanour and her approachable nature that allows for it. It’s also her style that shows through and draws you in.

“I have always been attracted to clothes as a young woman. I wanted to be a fashion designer while my father wanted me to be a medical doctor as my grades were very high,” Chef Nooror shares with us. “Being the youngest child, I was spoiled; my mother and my sisters would do the cooking. I felt I had something big to achieve, saw myself in magazines!” And she was right. She did achieve big and has appeared in magazines, as a woman of substance, a master of her craft and a stylish lady to top it all. She is also recognised for her work in women empowerment and in building awareness for breast cancer as the ambassador for the Breast Cancer Foundation in Thailand. You will find a special menu for the Pink Ribbon Campaign at her restaurants for it’s a cause she strongly believes in.

So how did she go from clothes to food, you ask. Her mum was undoubtedly a big influence in this regard, a very strong woman to look up to, and her dad ran a slaughterhouse upon acres of land where crops and crops were grown. But it’s a long story… Chef Nooror begins, “I was born in Chachoengsao, a land ripe with mangoes! I went to university on a scholarship as my dad was in the military during WWII, and then fate intervened and tossed my world around.” Fate brought Karle Steppe into her life, a Belgian art dealer who knew her brother – from when he studied Hotel Management in Belgium. Karle invited Nooror’s brother to Belgium and Nooror tagged along. Once the two gazed upon each other, their destiny unfolded and they were married by 1976. “My father was very upset, he did not speak to me, as I left my studies halfway and had moved to Belgium. A year later, I had my daughter, Sandra, after which he started talking to me again.

Karle would travel everywhere on work. India and Thailand were frequent haunts and in the midst of it all, Nooror would find herself cooking for the customers who would visit their store to buy antiques. The couple would host them at home and the guests would invariably advise Nooror to open a Thai restaurant in Belgium. Thus began the first Blue Elephant in Belgium which closed once she moved to Thailand and brought the brand home in 2001. “I still love to go to our home in Belgium and meet my friends and eat the food there, and cook for them,” Nooror smiles. “I also enjoy going to India, to Bombay, to meet my best friend. Indian cuisine is my second passion.” The testament to this is a former Pondicherry cuisine restaurant in Brussels, which Chef Nooror opened in 1985 and an internship that she undertook with Taj Hotels to learn the art of Indian cooking.

So one could concur Chef Nooror learnt her trade on her own, with the influence of her mum for sure, but there’s more, she tells us. “When I was in Belgium, I studied French cuisine to acquaint myself with the art of plating and refinement which I brought to the food served at Blue Elephant. Then, once in Thailand, I studied the nuances of Thai cuisine to finesse my skill and knowledge.” Today, she’s an ambassador of Thai cuisine and a Master Thai Chef, awarded with an honorary Master of Arts degree from Kasetsart University and the Prime Minister Exporter Award. She was also the first Thai chef at the United Nations forum in NYC and the first female guest chef on MasterChef India.

India does hold a special place for her, she reiterates, as she loved watching Bollywood movies growing up and visiting our fabled lands. In fact, her eldest child, daughter Sandra was married to the late Bollywood composer, Vicckey Goswami. Till date, Christmas is spent in India and the summers in Europe. Chef Nooror adds that Sandra travels with her on her culinary expeditions – while also teaching Thai cooking at their schools – and her older boy is the CEO of the family company. Her youngest boy, however, is a DJ. Last but not least, she tells us of another one of her great loves – shoes! She can shop till she drops! And Indian designer clothes, too.