Episode Details

This week on Five Rules for the Good Life, I sit down with chef, restaurateur, and author Arnold Myint, whose new cookbook Family Thai: Bringing the Flavors of Thailand Home is a love letter to legacy, flavor, and family. We talk about the roots of his family’s Nashville restaurant, International Market, the stories behind his mom’s recipes, and the responsibility of passing culinary traditions down. Arnold shares his Five rules for Mastering a Family Recipe, everything from staying true to the original version and then knowing when it’s time to make it your own. It’s heartfelt, emotional, and packed with wisdom for anyone who’s ever cooked with a recipe card stained in sauce and memories.

This one got me in my feelings. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to preserve my own family’s food history, how my grandmother’s cauliflower soup can still stop me in my tracks with just one spoonful, or how my mom’s turkey necks have quietly become my comfort food of choice. These are the recipes that shaped me. They live in my hands, my head, and hopefully soon, in my kids’ memories too. Arnold’s story is a beautiful reminder that it’s not just about what’s on the plate, it’s about who taught you to make it, who you share it with, and how those flavors get passed down like heirlooms. I’m looking forward to the day when my kids ask to learn how to make those dishes, and I’ll be ready, recipe card in hand.

Five Rules for the Good Life is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to Five Rules for the Good Life. I’m your host, Darin Bresnitz. Today, I sit down with my dear friend, Arnold Myint, whose new book, Family Thai: Bringing the Flavors of Thailand Home, is out now on Abrams Books. He shares his five rules for mastering a family recipe. He talks about the importance of cooking the original dish without adding any of your deviations, that listening to your ancestor’s voice is a great way to guide your hand in the kitchen, and that sharing the story behind any recipe is a great way to honor its legacy. It’s a fantastic conversation with great insights for anyone who owns a restaurant and wants to continue the tradition of their family cooking or anyone who wants to honor their own family legacy in their kitchen at home. So let’s get into the rules.

Arnold, it’s so good to see you. It’s been too long. Thank you so much for making time during your crazy book schedule and sit down for the show. What an honor and a pleasure.

Hey Darin, it’s good to see you too. You’re right. It has been way too long, but you know what? Full circle moment. It’s great to be here.

What I love about your life and your background is that food has always been a huge part of your upbringing and your life. What are the dishes that you remember from your childhood that still inspire you or still speak to you today?

Oh, it’s funny because I work in food and some people might think it’s fancy food. But for me, what turns me on are the things that are so comfortable and more like a timestamp of memories. My mom was always the spokesperson of the restaurant. I wasn’t really raised by the food that we served. I was raised by the food at home. And my dad was a professor and we had the same schedule because he had to get up to go to school and I had to get up. Something that just really puts a smile on my face is he made really great breakfasts for me. The best part of waking up is hearing sauteed onions going into German potato hash browns and a hint of lime lemon juice on some just smashed charred potatoes in a skillet with caramelized onions. And then I would get an egg cho