O n a May morning, Yotaka “Sunny” Martin stands at a large black stone mortar and pestle, adding garlic and peppercorns. While she deftly bashes the ingredients into a paste, her husband Alex stands beside her over a bowl of coconut meat that’s been hydrated with hot water. He works the coconut through his hands until the water becomes opaque. Martin adds shallot, local makrut lime zest, shrimp paste, Thai chile, spices, lemongrass, galangal and salt to the heavy bowl. With her head down, black hair pulled into a low ponytail, she’s intent on the work at hand. Every so often, she lifts the pestle to her nose. “I want to smell how strong the black pepper is,” Martin explains. Though Alex jokes that their desire to make these items by hand is masochistic, he says it also helps them maintain a “connection to people in Thailand.” “It takes time,” Martin adds, “but it’s worth it.” The chef first learned to make curry from her mother and grandmother while growing up in Chiang Rai, in northern Thailand. As a child, she asked her mom how she knew when to add the meat. “She said, ‘When you sneeze,’” Martin says with a big smile. The Martins run Lom Wong, an acclaimed restaurant in downtown Phoenix. On June 16, the chef’s expertise in the kitchen was recognized on a national stage: She won the 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chef - Southwest. Often described as the Oscars of food, these awards are coveted in the industry and can be a boon to restaurants when the notoriety attracts new diners. Martin, who is 34, became the second Valley chef in the past two years to earn the honor that recognizes cooks in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Oklahoma. Last year, Bacanora chef Rene Andrade won the category for his Sonoran-style live-fire cooking. For the past three years, Lom Wong has showcased regional Thai recipes from family and friends. Those people are depicted in large, vibrant photos framed around the restaurant’s dining room and bar. Their contributions are highlighted on the menu. Alex’s mom crafts the restau- rant’s desserts, while Martin’s parents regularly send suggestions and feedback from Thailand. Family is omnipresent at Lom Wong, and the Martins have built their own while growing the restaurant. The couple welcomed their son about a month after opening in 2022. Later this summer, they’ll become a family of four. Swaddled in her apron, Martin’s small bump is only just noticeable. Between opening their first restaurant and having their first baby, it’s been a busy few years. In 2023, Esquire named Lom Wong among the 50 Best New Restaurants in America. Esquire writer Joshua David Stein highlighted the restaurant’s hand- made approach, calling it an “act of love, of passionate cooking.” “From one angle, Lom Wong is simply a very good restaurant,” Stein wrote. “From another angle – after one or two shots of ya dong, a powerful Thai moonshine – it’s proof of, if not a divine being, then at least the benevolent tilt of the universe.” That same year, the couple opened Mr. Baan’s Bar and Mookata, serving cocktails and a Thai version of barbecue and hot pot in the courtyard behind Lom Wong. In 2024, the New York Times named Mr. Baan’s one of its “50 favorite places in America right now.” Phoenix New Times’ former dining critic Dominic Armato offered a salient take on the food, drink and vibes of the Martins’ second restaurant in his 2024 review: “I can think of few places in Phoenix where I’d rather spend an evening, period.” In 2023, Martin was named a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef - Southwest. This year, she advanced to the finals and heard her name called during the awards ceremony at the Lyric Opera in Chicago. While Martin acknowledges the impact of her award, she also says the Lom Wong team’s work is collaborative. The restau- rant’s motto is “community over self.” “I never knew about the James Beard Awards until we were nominated,” Martin said at the awards. “I am honored to have one, but it also feels strange to only have my name on it.” BUILDING A MENU, THREE REGIONS AT A TIME The curry paste that Martin has freshly pounded at Lom Wong is a prime example of that collaborative effort. The dish it’s for, Chu Bai Kiew Prik Ba Buey, is a spicy curry she and Alex learned from a member of the Moklen, an Indigenous community in southern Thailand. Martin walks into the restaurant’s tight, orderly galley kitchen to build the dish. She stands at the first of a row of stainless gas stoves. The rest of the team, who are busy accepting deliveries and prepping items for the night’s service, buzz around her. She heats a high-sided frying pan and toasts the paste slowly in oil, noting that too hot a pan can cause the curry to burn. The aroma of garlic and shallots fills the kitchen. Once the sting of the spices hits our sinuses, Martin turns to grab a bowl filled with marbled hunks of pork. Using a large spoon, she works to coat them in the paste. Her movements are calm and decisive. Occasionally, she confers with Alex in Thai. As the meat cooks, Martin ladles in the freshly made coconut milk – not to make the dish overly saucy or sweet, but to impart flavor. A handful of lime leaves, a nub of palm sugar and a glug of fish sauce finish the curry. Martin takes a soup spoon to taste and nods her head approvingly. She breathes Following her James Beard Award win, chef Yotaka “Sunny” Martin beams. BY SARA CROCKER Yotaka “Sunny” Martin and her husband Alex demonstrate making the curry paste and coconut milk used in a southern Thai pork curry they learned from the Moklen community.
