TV Personality and New York Times bestselling cookbook author Pepper Teigen has become America’s most well-known Thai mom and Yai (grandma). Lovingly known as “Pepper Thai” for her love of spicy chiles, she is the host of the Food Network and Discovery Plus show, Getting Spicy with Pepper Teigen. Her passion for food goes back to her childhood growing up in the small town of Isaan in Thailand, where her first job was cooking and selling coconut pancakes to commuters each day before school. When Pepper married Chrissy’s dad, she moved to America and helped him operate a bar he owned in Washington, where she cooked food with Thai flavors for the bar patrons. She became an expert at improvising with American ingredients when Thai ones, like green papaya and Thai basil, were hard to find. She not only kept her love of Thai food and traditions alive — even in the small towns where she lived in Idaho, Utah and Washington — but also used food to introduce her daughters, Chrissy and Tina, to her Thai culture.

Pepper is widely featured on Chrissy’s Instagram and on the Cravings’ website, where she shares her cooking tips and Thai recipes as part of her popular “Pepper’s Corner” video series. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Pepper Thai Cookbook. Teigen’s interactive cooking demonstrations make for memorable events that appeal to audiences of all kinds. Attendees cook along with Pepper as she shares her journey and recipes with wit and wisdom.