Farang, the Thai word for foreigner, is the story of how chef Andy Ricker took a 25 year obsession and spun it into the Pok Pok restaurant empire. While impetus behind Andy opening a restaurant in the first place was a decision based wanting to be able to travel and not continue his house painting business, it became more than that. The focus of Andy’s mission soon became to represent the culture and food of the people in Northern Thailand as faithfully as possible. He is constantly reinforcing the idea that he is not a chef, but merely a person who is helping to curate this cuisine in America. In the film Andy introduces us to 3 of his main inspirations Thailand for which he based some of his most successful dishes. Farang covers Andy’s story from his childhood to present day, and was filmed between Chiang Mai, Portland, and New York. The filming was mostly done in May 2013 as Andy was getting ready to open up 6th restaurant, Sen Yai.
