Michelin-starred Paste Bangkok to open offshoot in Mittagong

If the imported tables clear customs, Asia's best female chef, as awarded by World's 50 Best Restaurants, and Michelin star-holder Bongkoch Satongun will open a restaurant in Australia on Thursday.

It won't be on the busy eat streets of Sydney or Melbourne. She's chosen Mittagong as the site for the Aussie offshoot of her Michelin-starred Bangkok restaurant, Paste.

How did the sleepy Southern Highlands town get first dibs on her prized watermelon salad and smoked trout tapioca dumplings? Satongun's partner in life and business, chef Jason Bailey, is a local.

"We have a seven-year-old. We want her to grow up here," Satongun says of the business expansion.

Satongun and Bailey earned their Michelin stars by delving into traditional Thai dishes. They took the recipe for a 17th-century relish and historic salad dishes and dragged them into the 21st century. Seaweed powder and lesser-used spices pop up in their cooking.

The Bangkok-raised chef isn't the only highly prized recruit headed to regional NSW. Earlier this year Emily Herbert, the Australian head chef at Ottolenghi Belgravia, opened Otis in Kiama.