Lom Wong's award-nominated chef infuses family and flavor in every dish

On a cloudy morning in May, 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 in 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. She recalls asking her mom as a child how she knew when to add the meat.

“She said, ‘When you sneeze,’” Martin says with a big smile.

The couple run Lom Wong, an acclaimed restaurant in downtown Phoenix. To say that the menu is personal to Martin is an understatement.

For the past three years, Lom Wong has showcased regional Thai recipes from family and friends. Those people are highlighted in large photos framed around the restaurant’s dining room and bar. Their contributions are highlighted on the menu. Alex’s mom crafts the restaurant’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. Lom Wong was named among Esquire’s 50 Best New Restaurants in America in 2023. 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.”

Martin’s culinary skills have twice been recognized by the James Beard Foundation. In 2023, she was a semifinalist for Best Chef Southwest. She’s nominated in the same category again this year. Winners of the coveted cooking awards, which have been described as the Oscars of food, will be announced at a ceremony in Chicago on June 16.

Martin quips that she’s too busy to enjoy the moment. The couple were shopping for rugs when they got word this year that she was once again in the running for the award.

“Let’s get this done and then we can talk about that later,” she says of her feeling at the time. “But absolutely, we’re very happy about it.”

Building a community-driven menu

With the curry paste and coconut milk ready, Martin walks to the first of a row of stainless gas stoves in the tight but orderly galley kitchen. 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 on the counter behind her filled with marbled hunks of pork. Using a large spoon, she quickly 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 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. When Alex tastes the dish, he says it’s got to be added to the menu.

As if they aren’t busy enough, the Martins are testing recipes for dishes to add this summer. Changing things up is complex because the menu is structured around highlighting three regions of Thailand. The Martins work to find the balance of those dishes, while also ensuring a cohesive menu.

Currently, Lom Wong has six dishes on the menu that use different housemade curry pastes. But Martin is revisiting a curry that was on Lom Wong’s menu four years ago when the restaurant was a nascent pop-up, and they’d like to bring it back.

This curry is not one that Martin learned from her family. Chu Bai Kiew Prik Ba Buey is a spicy version she and Alex learned from the Moklen, an Indigenous community in southern Thailand. There’s a delicate citrus note at first bite, followed by the slow, buzzing burn of peppercorn and Thai chile.

“You get the hit of two types of pepper,” Alex says. “So it creates a little bit more complexity.”

Martin has also been testing a strawberry salad for the summer menu. When the couple was in Thailand this spring, they noticed northern Thai-grown strawberry salads popping up on menus. The dish is still in the works but will have herbaceous, spicy and savory notes from mint and the toasted chile jam called nam prik pao.

Changing the menu is a team effort. “We have to test everything out together,” Martin says, explaining that using a collective-driven process is a foundation of the restaurant.

“Our motto at Lom Wong is community over self,” Alex says. “Everybody’s taken ownership over being able to be part of that process, which mirrors how things are done in a village.”

‘A platform to tell our story’

The team approach is part of the reason Martin feels strange that the James Beard nomination is tied only to her. For the self-described “quiet people” who don’t seek the spotlight, these kinds of accolades bring more opportunities but also more “pressure,” Martin says.

“It gives us a platform to tell our story,” Alex says. “Getting that platform is something that is really nice, but it’s intense, too.”

Martin notes she’s glad there’s another Phoenix chef headed to Chicago. Valentine’s Crystal Kass is a nominee for Outstanding Pastry Chef. Martin says she’ll take the advice of friend and former Valentine chef Donald Hawk to take lots of pictures and enjoy the food while they’re in the Windy City.
If Martin wins the Best Chef Southwest award, she'll join other notable Valley chefs, including Bacanora's Rene Andrade, FnB's Charleen Badman and Hai Noon's Nobuo Fukuda.

The timing is serendipitous, with the arrival of their second child approaching. Though reticent to talk about herself, Martin lights up when talking about food, the Lom Wong team and her family. She shares stories of her son helping her shop and, at just 3, reminding her when she’s missed an ingredient.

Alex says the reality of becoming new parents again is starting to settle in. He’s in awe of watching his wife balance it all, recalling special moments that happen every day, like Martin entertaining their toddler while shredding mango.

“She’s never once said it’s too much,” he says.

For Martin it’s simple.

“We just love doing what we’re doing.”

Lom Wong

218 E. Portland St.