Connect
To Top
Local Stories

Community Highlights: Meet Amy Vorabutra of Angry Mom’s Kitchen

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Vorabutra.

Amy Vorabutra

Hi Amy, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers. 

I grew up in Thailand helping my mom sell food from as young as I can remember. I always loved to eat and try new foods, especially local specialties. I moved to the states in 2006 and spent a few years working in the restaurant industry and got the chance to learn about different cuisines like korean, japanese, western. Eventually I became a mom and left the restaurant industry but stayed active cooking and definitely eating!
As my son grew older, I didn’t really know what to do with myself or my time, and it was difficult for a number of years. I always wanted to have my own food business, but my husband and I could not make the kind of investment required for a traditional brick-and-mortar.
In 2021, we had friends come visit us as they were interested in moving to Houston from Chicago. They had experience running a restaurant, and they were exploring the idea of starting a restaurant in Houston. To help them out, we set up some meetings for them to see potential spaces. One of the spaces we visited was Cloudkitchens, which offers commercial kitchen facilities with no storefront, therefore a lower startup costs compared to a traditional restaurant. With more orders shifting online every year, the model seemed to make sense. Our friends decided not to move forward, but my husband and I saw an opportunity to give it a shot.
I always knew that if I had a restaurant, I would focus on being the best at one thing. I chose Khao Mun Gai, which is a Thai chicken and rice dish that my mom used to make. It’s a very common street food dish in Thailand and many other countries in Southeast Asia, but not too widely known in the US. The Thai version comes with your choice of fried chicken or boiled chicken. It’s a delicious comfort food for me that uses lots of ginger, which I love. I use authentic ingredients to get those rich bold authentic flavors. The placement of each item in the box is intentional. My mom’s philosophy was that good food doesn’t have to be expensive, it just needs to be made with love. Every bite needs to feel good for the soul. I chose the name Angry Mom’s Kitchen (because I have been known to have a temper in the kitchen, just like my mom did), and I liked it because it is memorable.
We opened up November 2021. I have learned a lot in the past couple years and continue to learn every day. The hardest part for me is learning to build a team and work well with other people. We have steadily grown the business but have lots more work to do. We still operate in the same kitchen today, but I am always thinking about what the next phase might look like for us. It is a grind, but I always get such a big boost of energy when a customer tells me how much they enjoy Khao Mun Gai and our special ginger sauce (which we now sell in packaged 12oz bottles).

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s been a constant learning journey. The recipe and menu might have been the easiest because I love cooking, and it comes natural to me. Luckily feedback on the food was great from the beginning. The first real challenge was figuring out processes for the kitchen because cooking on my own time is very different from having to make sure inventory, food prep, everything is ready to go every day. It took a little bit of trial and error, but then we started to develop processes. 

I decided to hire my first employee in early 2022, as sales started to grow, and that created the next big challenge for me. I had to learn how to train and manage people. It didn’t help that English is not my first language. I am also very impatient. It’s also frustrating when you spend time and energy training someone that doesn’t work out for whatever reason and then have to go through the whole process again with someone new. That taught me to be much more selective over who we hire. I’m still very hard to work with, but I try to take care of our team members every day because without them, we wouldn’t have a business. 

The restaurant industry is also very competitive, and so every day, we have to find new sales channels and ways to grow our customers. It never ends. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Angry Mom’s Kitchen?
We are a restaurant that specializes in Khao Mun Gai, which is a Thai chicken and rice dish. It is a well-known street food in Thailand but is not too widely known in the US. It’s also referred to as Hainan chicken in some parts of Asia, but the Thai version come with your choice of fried chicken or boiled chicken (as opposed to just boiled). 

The dish comes in sort of a set with ginger garlic rice, slices of fried or steamed chicken, cabbage, cucumber slices, winter melon soup, and ginger sauce. It’s a perfect orchestra of flavors that is very warm and comforting. I call it food for the soul. 

I don’t just want to introduce people to Khao Mun Gai. I want Angry Mom’s Kitchen to be known as having the best Khao Mun Gai available anywhere. We have had multiple customers say this is the best khao mun gai they have ever had, including in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Our ginger sauce is made with massive amounts of ginger root blended with Thai peppers and garlic. We’ve had so many people ask for our sauce that we recently decided to package and bottle our ginger sauce in 12oz bottles. 

Contact Info:

Suggest a Story: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in Local Stories