& Sushi Bar

West Des Moines, Iowa

Tel: 515-440-2075

Ormsin  (Mao) Heinemen:  She was born in 1961 in a poor rice-grower family in the northern Thailand.  The love of cooking has been with her since her remembering.  During her childhood, she would help her mother making many kinds of desserts and foods to sell in local villages to support her family in Thailand. 

Her interest to become chef grew.  During her late teens, she had an opportunity to be in one of the most famous culinary school in Thailand, now called Rajamangala University of Technology Krungthep (http://www.techhome.rmutk.ac.th) to be trained to become a chef.  Due to her financial condition, she had to work as a teacher, instead of a chef she wanted to be. 

Meet the chef

After seven years of teaching and saving enough money, she came to the U.S. in 1987 without knowing any English to find a better opportunity for her life.  Here she met her husband Fred.

Her cooking philosophy:  She believes healthy eating, so she tries to cook that way.  With more than 25 year experience in cooking healthy Thai food, she realizes that eating Thai food has more benefits than just filling hungry stomach.  Most of herbs she uses in her cooking have medicinal effects.  Lemon grass can heal stomach ache heartburn, common cold, etc.  Ginger can cure coughing and common cold and giving body warmth.  Many Thai garden herbs, such as basils, galangal, garlic, red onion, lime, etc. has also been used in many modern medicine.

If you are not in a good shape. Please feel free to ask her about the healing power of the Thai herbs and her suggestion of your menu. 

For persons on diet, she recommend having summer roll (without peanut sauce), Larb, and Thai salad.  They pack a punch in taste without any guilty for eating fat or carbohydrate.