"Every day, I would pound curry pastes. The first dish I made was Steamed Fish With Red Curry Paste in a banana leaf," recounts renowned Thai chef Nooror Somany Steppe, who discovered her love for cooking at the age of 11. "In school, we had to choose either cooking or knitting. I chose cooking. It taught me teamwork with my school friends and we had a lot of fun. I still remember I made Red Chicken Curry With Bamboo Shoots as one of the dishes," recollects the chef, who went on to set up the first outpost of world famous Blue Elephant in Brussels, back in 1980, at a time when Thai cuisine was still to get its due.

With her daughter and chef Sandra Steppe