Name: DeeDee Niyomkul's Winning Tom kha kai
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 2 tbsp neutral oil; 3 tbsp red curry paste; 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes; 1 can (13.5 oz) full-fat coconut milk; 1 cup chicken stock; 3 tbsp fish sauce; 2 tbsp palm sugar; 8 oz baby button mushrooms, halved; 1 red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces; 3 stalks lemongrass, white part only, bruised and cut into 2-inch pieces; 4 kaffir lime leaves, torn; 1 Thai bird's eye chile, split lengthwise; 2 tbsp fresh lime juice; Thai basil leaves for garnish

Tom kha kai is a soup built on the balance of galangal, lemongrass, and kaffir lime — aromatics that are unforgiving to overextraction. DeeDee Niyomkul, who runs Nan Thai Buckhead in Atlanta after transforming the former Chai Yo Modern Thai, understands these aromatics the way you only can if you've been cooking with them your whole career: not as flavors to add, but as a ceiling not to exceed.

She simmered her galangal and lemongrass in coconut milk at 165°F — below a boil — for fifteen minutes, then removed them before they crossed into bitterness. Mushrooms went in at the ten-minute mark rather than the beginning, retaining their texture. Fish sauce came off-heat, not in the boil, because heat volatilizes the fermented complexity. The finish was fresh lime juice, not bottled, added at the last thirty seconds.

Nan Thai Buckhead is the room DeeDee Niyomkul built for this kind of cooking. Bobby's tom kha, per judges, over-extracted the aromatics. There are fifteen minutes between delicate and bitter, and she spent them perfectly.