Cooking Thai Food at Home: What the Kitchen Needs

Serious Thai cooking wants high, responsive heat and a surface that suits a round-bottomed wok. Induction handles everyday cooking well but a dedicated gas wok burner, often outdoors or in a secondary kitchen, is what most keen cooks end up with.

Wok cooking aerosolises oil throughout the room. Extraction should be specified for that, not for an occasional roast, and ducted outside wherever the building permits it.

Thai cooking is prep-heavy: pounding pastes, chopping aromatics, handling fresh herbs and seafood. That means more continuous worktop between sink and hob, and a surface that tolerates a heavy granite mortar being set down hard.

Fresh market shopping generates volume: washing produce, trimming and disposing of it. A large single-bowl sink, a generous drainer area and a properly sized bin arrangement matter more here than a second oven ever will.