John Chantarasak: From the Drums to the Only Michelin-Starred Thai Restaurant in London

First published in FNL-Guide in October 2025

In a remarkably short period of time, AngloThai has already written its own chapter in London’s dining scene. Just three months after opening in November 2024, the restaurant of John and Desiree Chantarasak was awarded a Michelin star, making it the only Thai restaurant in London with this distinction. For John, this recognition marks the culmination of a decade-long journey that began not in a culinary school, but in the garage rock scene and the streets of New York.

Before he ever dreamed of AngloThai, John Chantarasak was the drummer in a band inspired by the Strokes, Kings of Leon, and the Libertines.

“It was a time when garage rock was emerging on both sides of the Atlantic,” he recalls. “I loved how the bands that influenced us took ideas from classic acts and adapted them for a younger generation.”

He and three friends from a small town in Wales moved to New York without a real plan, driven only by the desire to immerse themselves in the city’s musical landscape. “We moved to the Lower East Side because we knew the Strokes lived there,” he says with a smile. “In those bars that opened at midnight and closed at six in the morning, we met another side of chefs, the ones who go out after work, have beers, talk.”

Reading Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain at the age of 27 became a turning point. “For me, the transition from music to cooking felt very natural,” he admits. “Both worlds operate without a real rulebook. People come from all sorts of backgrounds, find their way, and then discover their own journey.”

Music gave him something far more important than technique. “From the age of 16 or 17, we were sending demos to radio stations, knocking on doors, showing up at concert venues. That builds a very entrepreneurial mindset in your head at a young age.”

When he made the hardest decision of his life, to leave music at 27, he approached cooking with the same determination. “I didn’t want to start from the very bottom, washing dishes and climbing step by step,” he explains. “I knew my body couldn’t handle 10 or 15 years of that. So I tried to network, to meet people who would be important to the journey I was imagining.”

After completing Le Cordon Bleu in Bangkok in 2013, he did a stage at the Michelin-starred Nahm, worked at Som Saa in London where he rose to sous chef, and began his own pop-ups in 2018. Twelve years after entering the culinary world, he opened AngloThai.

“As a drummer, I definitely brought rhythm from the drums into the kitchen,” he says with a grin. In AngloThai’s kitchen, small by London standards, seven chefs work like a band. There is only one ticket machine at the pass, and no one keeps a paper copy. “Everyone has to memorize what they’re cooking,” he explains. “It’s like a dance. They weave around each other, reach into each other’s fridges, grill something in another section.”

This synchronized movement resembles the best moments on stage. “In 12 years, I’ve experienced a perfect service only once or twice,” he admits. “It’s like going on stage and everyone syncing in mood and energy. That’s when you have an out-of-body experience, you feel invincible. It’s something both industries share. Music and hospitality.”

At AngloThai, music isn’t just background noise. John collaborated with close friend and music industry insider Ben Baptie, a well-known producer who has worked with artists like Lady Gaga, to create the restaurant’s playlist, while Audio Gold from North London installed the vintage Tannoy Devon speakers from the 1970s.

“I spent four or five weeks listening to records with the Audio Gold guys, trying different combinations of amps and speakers,” he recalls. “I wanted British speakers to complement the AngloThai concept. A restaurant that uses British produce should also have British-made speakers.”

In the kitchen, every station has mini boombox speakers. “I encourage the team to play their own playlists,” he says. “One day it might be Rage Against The Machine, the next day k-pop, the next Whitney Houston. This eclectic musical atmosphere reinforces the idea that your food absorbs a wider range of influences.”

With their four-year-old son, John and Desiree wrote down 52 artists who shaped them musically and put the names into a hat. “Every week we pull out a name and explore that artist,” he explains with a smile. “From the Beatles to Lady Gaga, we try to show him how vast music is, just like food.”

“If someone asked me to choose between the Michelin star or achieving absolute success as a musician, what would I choose?” he repeats, thoughtful. “It’s a very good question.”

His answer reveals a lot: when he won the star, he spent a few nights alone, drank a bit more, and listened to his old music. “I remember thinking, this music is so good and it’s a shame it never went anywhere,” he admits. It rekindled communication with his former bandmates and their friendship.

“I firmly believe everything happens for a reason,” he reflects. “Winning a Michelin star was my destiny, and cooking is my destiny. But I’m very glad I got to taste what it means to go on stage and feel that surge of adrenaline. It’s something many people will never experience in their lives.”

AngloThai combines bold Thai flavours with seasonal British produce, reflecting John’s dual heritage, half Thai, half British. The restaurant doesn’t simply substitute Thai ingredients with British ones; it reimagines the entire approach.

At the pass, John is calm and focused, just as he was on stage. “I’m not an extrovert,” he admits. “I was the kid who never wanted to raise his hand in class. It took me a long time to build confidence.” But as he learned both on stage and in the kitchen, you must project calmness. “The guest doesn’t know what you’re cooking. Even if you serve something ‘wrong,’ if it’s delicious and beautiful, they’ll think that’s how it was meant to be,” he tells his younger chefs. This philosophy, accepting imperfection, striving for perfection, is deeply rooted in his musical upbringing. “You’ll never achieve things perfectly 99.9% of the time,” he says. “But you can chase it, and that 0.1% that exists only in your head? The guest has no idea.”

Today, at 39, John Chantarasak stands at the pass of AngloThai, the only Thai restaurant in London with a Michelin star, and his path from drums to kitchen now seems not only logical but inevitable. “There’s so much music out there you can’t hear it all in a lifetime,” he reflects. “And there’s so much food you can’t eat it all in a lifetime. It’s amazing how vast these worlds are.”

When asked whether he looks back nostalgically at his days on stage, he smiles. “For me, life without music isn’t life,” he says. “And I think the same applies to food. I’m one of those people who live to eat, because I love it. I’m one of those people who live to listen to music, because I love it.”

In the AngloThai kitchen, with the vintage Tannoy Devon speakers playing, with chefs weaving between sections, with the rhythm of service beating like a drum, John Chantarasak has managed something rare: to unite his two passions in one, singular experience. And in those rare moments when everything flows perfectly, when every dish lands exactly right, when the kitchen moves like a single instrument, he relives that old rush of the stage.

Only now, the applause comes in the form of a Michelin star.