Pailin Chongchitnant

Pailin Chongchitnant is a popular food YouTuber.

She has 1.6 million subscribers on her YouTube channel by the name, Pailin’s Kitchen.

Pailin is also a blogger and an author.

Introduction-

Pailin Chongchitnant (Pai) was born on 4 March 1983 in Hat Yai, Thailand.

She grew up in Hat Yai and is Thai Chinese as she has a Chinese ethnicity.

Her father is a doctor.

Pailin has a couple of brothers, Art and Eddie.

Art works as a professional cinematographer in Los Angeles.

Love for cooking-

At a young age, Pailin fell in love with cooking.

As a child, she initially used to help elders in the kitchen and her first ever dish that she prepared was a Thai omelette.

While growing up, her live-in grandmother who was also a family cook taught Pailin all the basics of Thai cooking.

At 12, she moved to Wellington, New Zealand to learn English and here, her passion for cooking exploded as she discovered exotic foods like muffins, mashed potatoes and lamingtons.

Pailin lived in Wellington for a year and here, she tried her hand at various new dishes.

Then, she returned to Bangkok, Thailand and here also, she continued cooking.

While studying in high school, cable TV became available in Thailand and thanks to this, Pailin was able to watch overseas cooking shows.

Soon, she fell in love with the cooking shows especially that of Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson and she used to write down recipes shown on television on a paper.

Thanks to her love for cooking, her education and career all revolved around cooking and food.

Education-

Pailin did her schooling from RIS Ruamrudee International School in Bangkok, Thailand.

During studying in high school, as she was attracted to cooking shows, she wanted to grow up to have a cooking show.

Soon, Pailin realised that it wasn’t a realistic career goal, so she moved to Vancouver, Canada to study for a bachelor’s degree in Nutritional Sciences from The University of British Columbia.

Career & culinary school-

While studying at the university, Pailin used to work as a cashier at Only U Cafe.

After graduating, she secured the job of a cook in a catering company.

San Francisco attracted Pailin as a foodie city and so, she later moved there and joined Le Cordon Bleu culinary school to study for a Culinary Arts Degree.

She also started working in pastry shops.

Starting her YouTube channel-

While studying at the culinary school, Pailin desired to have her own cooking show.

Her brother, Eddie suggested she start a YouTube channel as this would serve as a digital resume which might help her to get a cooking show on the Food Network.

So, Pailin started her YouTube channel by the name Hot Thai Kitchen (later renamed to Pailin’s Kitchen) on 11 September 2009.

As she spent many years living in Canada and the United States and was upset with the Thai food served in the restaurants there, she decided to share authentic Thai cooking through her YouTube channel.

Later, Pailin secured the job of a chef in a Thai restaurant group and helped them open a new restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Initially, her YouTube channel was just a hobby for her and as she used to be busy working as a chef, she used to post videos infrequently.

Eddie helped Pailin as a cameraman for a year.

Moving back to Vancouver & becoming a full-time YouTuber-

After living for a few years in the United States, as Pailin got permanent residency in Canada, she moved back to Vancouver, Canada.

During that time, she met Rod of Fishing with Rod YouTube channel and was impressed on learning that he was earning a full-time income with his YouTube channel.

So, Pailin decided to start working on her YouTube channel seriously.

She started dedicating more time to her channel, started publishing videos regularly, invested in better equipment and also took the assistance of a cameraman.

During that time, Pailin monetised her YouTube channel and became a full-time YouTuber.

As she didn’t have a proper kitchen at that time, she started filming videos in Adam’s kitchen.

Adam used to also help Pailin as a cameraman and provides IT support for her website.

A successful YouTuber-

In 2012, Pailin started publishing videos on a regular basis and thanks to this, her YouTube channel started growing.

And during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the people were confined to homes and started watching YouTube and home cooking a lot, her channel grew even faster and crossed a million subscribers.

As of September 2022, Pailin has 1.61M subscribers on Pailin’s Kitchen YouTube channel and has 295K followers on her Facebook page and 125K followers on Instagram.

She earns from a variety of sources like advertisements on her YouTube videos, receiving sponsorships, affiliate marketing, selling her cookbook and merchandise and she also accepts donations through Patreon.

Pailin also earns through brand partnerships on Instagram.

She also has a website.

Her TV show & cookbook-

Thanks to the success of her YouTube channel, Pailin got an opportunity to appear on One World Kitchen show on Gusto TV.

This show premiered on 1 June 2015.

Pailin published her cookbook titled Hot Thai Kitchen on 8 March 2016.

She also got featured on The New York Times.

Personal life-

Pailin met Craig through mutual friends.

He is a graphic designer and much like her, Craig also has Chinese ethnicity.

They got married in January 2018 in Bangkok.

This couple has a son, Kaan.

Pailin lives in Vancouver, Canada.

Some interesting facts about Pailin-

• For a few of her YouTube videos, Pailin collaborated with Mark Wiens, an extremely popular food YouTuber.
• She loves miniature versions of kitchen utensils.
• Pailin is a polyglot as she knows Thai, English, French and Spanish.

So, how are you inspired by the success story of Pailin Chongchitnant?

Share with me in the comment section below.