The Royal Thai Embassy in Lima, in cooperation with JW Marriott Bogota, organizedthe first Thai Food Festival in Colombia from 14-25 August 2013. Chef Kay NapasiriEksupapan, the owner of Thai Society Restaurant in San Diego, California, has been selected by the Office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand in Los Angeles, as a representative Chef for this event. 

     For an opening night, a reception was held at the Monet Brasserie Restaurant of the hotel, in cooperation with the Royal Thai Honorary Consulate in Bogota on 14 August 2013 with invited guests from diplomatic and consular corps, high-level government officials, private sectors and the local media. All guests were given souvenirs including a book on “Secret of Thai Cooking” by the Thai Foundation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Muay Thai demonstrations from Ramakien Academia Muay Boran as well as VDO presentation about tourism in Thailand were shown to guests attending the reception. 

     Two separate cooking demonstrations of Thai food were organized at SENA, the government-supportedacademic institute which provides free technical education for youths throughout Colombia, and at the Verde Oliva, the private-run institute which was established 10 years ago as the first culinary school in Colombia.