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.

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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 choice. I would either get a soft boiled egg or I would get a scrambled egg sandwich or a soft fried egg Asian style white Wonder Bread toast still spongy enough to soak up and get mushy in the egg yolk. For me to this day whenever I’m with a group on a vacation rental or I have guests home I’ll just fry an onion just to turn everybody on. I don’t even plan on making food but just start with that and it puts everybody in a good mood.

I love that your dad cooked at home and your parents had this incredible restaurant, International Market, that’s been in Nashville since 1975. You and your sister took it over in 2021. Why was it so important for you and your family to share Thai food with the community?

Well, I had no choice because I was born into it. I think there was a bassinet that said, I know I’m cute, but please don’t touch. Wow. The original hostess of the restaurant. And then I started to create a dinner theater because I was roller skating, giving shows to the guests while they were eating when I was a kid.

Incredible.

Amazing.

It was meant to be, right?

For my mother, it was a means of survival. She was in Nashville in the 70s with my dad trying to acclimate to a culture and society she didn’t know nothing about. She needed some sort of comfort. And I don’t think a ham and biscuit was what her vision of comfort was.

Of course.

Luckily, my dad went to school in upstate New York and had resources and connections in larger cities. So they discovered there were accessible things in larger cities that they had to bring down if they wanted to have the flavors that reminded them of home. Buying in bulk is cheaper.

Sure.

So she needed a way to afford it to where she could eat, but she had a surplus of ingredients. So it was just almost by necessity that she started selling it so she could have free food.

I got it.

So she would buy in bulk and she’s like, well, what do I do? I’m going to open a market. Well, nobody’s buying from the market. They don’t know what to do with it. Well, I’m going to open up a steam table and display the food so people can get samples of it so I can sell it. It was a means of satisfying some homesickness through food unknowingly molding a culture and society of Asian food in the South.

It was pretty special.

It is really special. And you’ve captured their story and the story of the restaurant in your first cookbook, Family Thai: Bringing the Flavors of Thailand Home, which came out October 7th, which is technically your second baby because you have your beautiful daughter, Henley.

Yes.

What of these recipes did you want to pass on from your parents to her?

We’ve known each other for a little bit. And you knew when I was kind of toying with the wanting the child, you just had your baby when we were hanging out. I’m in LA. She was born when my deadline for my book was due. She came about a week and a half early, which wasn’t too dramatic, but just dramatic enough. I was holding her in one hand with a pillow with my computer in my other hand, trying to type my deadline at three in the morning.

I love it.

In terms of the recipes in the book, that was really easy. It really comes from when my mom passed away and we started getting overflow of messages from loyal customers that just loved my mom for 40 plus years. I just knew I had to archive her stuff for everyone.

Of course.

The story was either your mom would bring us in the kitchen and she would teach us, or she came to our house and showed us, or I’m so sad I never got to finish her promise of learning how to make this.

Right.

Being that my sister was in fashion and I was the one in food, it’s my responsibility almost to continue this legacy and archive these recipes for everyone. And in the same breath, I also know my mother would not want me to be stagnant in my career. I needed to cook how I cook with the foundational outline of what this food should be in her mind. Basically, I felt like I was given the green light to elevate what she had laid out for me to begin with.

Sure.

In the book, it’s mom’s version, not the Thai way, but mom’s Thai way, plus my Thai way on top of that.

Which is amazing.

Yeah.

Preserving that legacy of recipes, especially when your family is centered around food is really important. Even having the courage and the conviction to start cooking your family’s recipes takes a lot, which I learned from cooking from my grandmother’s and my own mother’s recipes.

Yeah.

Which is why I’m so excited for you to share your five rules for mastering your family recipe. And the very first rule is probably the hardest one because it really is about getting started and sticking with it. What is your first rule?

Rule number one is to commit to the original recipe and not deviate from it for a while.

Mm-hmm.

It’s tough.

Yes.

Baby bird is taught and encouraged to fly out of the nest and move on.

With its own style of flying.

With its own flight.

Yeah.

When I was thinking about writing a cookbook, long before I actually got the cookbook deal, I was starting to archive recipes, not knowing where it would go.

Of course.

So I remember this one day, I called my mother and I was like, I need Yaya’s shumai recipe. Yaya is Chinese for grandma. We’ve served this recipe for four decades at the restaurant. My mom was on the phone and she was going through it and I was trying to dissect it because she doesn’t have chef’s language, right?

Of course.

A little this, but a little that. And I’m trying to understand and transcribe it. And right before we hung up, she goes, hey, hey, hey. And I could hear her calling me back to the phone. She goes, please, whatever you do, do not change this recipe. For many reasons, it’s perfect. Be good. I love you. Three days later, she passes away unexpectedly.

I’m so sorry.

That was our last conversation was that recipe.

So not to go there.

No, of course.

So for me, it’s very special. And for me, the aunties in the kitchen at the restaurant that have been making this dumpling since before I was born and have the ritual on every Monday as we make 2,000 dumplings, we’re not deviating from this recipe ever. And when I make it, I know that’s the reason why.

Mm.

And people can taste it. The generations of people that come into the restaurant to eat it, they have shared this with their children who now have children. It’s become a staple in so many people’s lives, including my own. I kind of have burnt out on eating them, but every time I go back to that one bite on Dumpling Day, it’s magic.

It transports me.

That transportation is something that I always feel when I’m cooking one of my grandmother’s recipes because it feels like she’s talking to me or talking me through it as I cook, which ties directly into your rule number two.

That transportation is something that I always feel when I’m cooking one of my grandmother’s recipes because it feels like she’s talking to me or talking me through it as I cook, which ties directly into your rule number two.

Rule number two is to cook with your ancestor’s voice. It’s about muscle memory. It’s about channeling the voice in your head that taught you how to make that recipe. And for me, my mom is always there, especially when I’m unsure or second-guessing myself. I can hear her going, “No, no, no, that’s not how you do it,” or “Add a little more sugar,” or “Don’t overcook the noodles.” Even though she’s not physically here, her energy, her wisdom, and her taste are always guiding me. And that gives me a sense of comfort and confidence when I’m cooking something so personal.

That’s one of the biggest joys of cooking something from your family’s history—the comfort and connection it gives you. And now that you’re a parent, you’re starting that next generation of memories and meals, which leads us to rule number three.

Rule number three is to share the story behind the recipe. Food is great, but food with a story? That’s next level. When you tell someone where a dish came from, who taught it to you, or what it meant to your family, that dish becomes something more than just something you eat. It becomes emotional. It becomes memorable. It carries the weight and warmth of history. I always say, if you’re going to cook for someone, give them the full experience. Tell them why it matters. That’s the way to honor your family and the recipe at the same time.

That’s something we talk a lot about on this show. The why behind the what. And food is such a powerful vehicle for stories, for keeping legacies alive, which brings us to rule number four.

Rule number four is to write it down—but only after you’ve cooked it several times. Recipes evolve. Measurements change. Your taste grows. But you want to document the version that feels the most true to the spirit of the original. So don’t write it down after your first try. Wait. Cook it a few times. Let the muscle memory kick in. Then, when you’ve nailed the flavor and the feel, put it to paper. That way you preserve it for future generations in the most authentic way.

Which is what you’ve done with this book. You’ve honored your family’s story, your mother’s voice, and also added your own flavor—literally and figuratively. And that brings us to your fifth and final rule.

Rule number five is to teach it forward. Don’t let it stop with you. Teach your kid. Teach your niece. Teach your neighbor. It doesn’t have to be formal. Just invite them into your kitchen. Let them chop. Let them stir. Let them taste. And tell them why it matters. That’s how you make sure the recipe lives on—not just in a book, but in the people who keep cooking it.

Arnold, this was such a wonderful conversation. Congratulations on Family Thai. Where can people get the book?

It’s available everywhere books are sold, online and in your local bookstore. And follow me on Instagram @arnoldmyint for more cooking tips, stories, and behind-the-scenes looks at the recipes.

Amazing. Thank you for sharing your rules and your story. I can’t wait to cook some of these dishes at home—and maybe get one of those dumplings from the steam table in Nashville.

I’ll save you one, Darin. Thanks again for having me.

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