What our government has tried to do to promote our food abroad is standardise a few recipes, namely tom yam goong and phad thai, for Thai restaurants abroad to follow. I'm not a nationalist but having grown up around Thai food, I know it's one of the best cuisines in the world. The standardisation was carried out by the National Innovation Agency in 2014 with the aim to promote "Thai Deliciousness" that would be a guide for over 20,000 Thai restaurants in 93 countries around the world. Instead of promoting a standard taste, the government should promote local quality ingredients and do more to help skilful Thai chefs to be exported to restaurants around the world. In fact, many argue the criteria are put in place by farang critics without the expertise to judge Asian cuisine.

Source: Bangkok Post July 26, 2016 21:45 UTC