Nath’s Brings Khmer Cooking to Santa Fe

AMID THE LUNCH-HOUR buzz at Chomp Food Hall, Nath’s Inspired Khmer Cuisine is an oasis of calm. Chef Kimnath “Nath” Gyallay-Pap works quietly behind the counter, carefully assembling each dish while diners wait in patient anticipation. In the busy Santa Fe hall, her maternal presence has become something of an anchor—many of the other vendors affectionately call her Grandma.

Born in Cambodia with Vietnamese, Thai, and Chinese heritage, Nath learned her craft from a woman who served in the royal palace before the Khmer Rouge regime. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1999 and opened her first restaurant in Colorado. She continues to send money to her family, who make meals for people in hospitals in the region, she says.

Santa Feans first fell for Nath’s Southeast Asian cooking in the 2010s through private catering, Thai-Khmer fusion nights while she was chef at Sweetwater Harvest Kitchen, and multiple first-place wins at the annual Souper Bowl competition benefiting the Food Depot. When Chomp Food Hall opened in late 2020, her stall quickly became one of its cornerstones. Her menu draws inspiration from Thai and Cambodian classics while adding personal twists. 

Her green coconut curry is a perfect introduction. Truly marvelous curry depends on balance, and Nath deftly navigates sweet and sour, coaxing depth from a mélange of subtle flavors that stand up to the heat. She also has a few rules for enjoying it: Taste the kombucha squash, green beans, and red bell peppers separately with the sauce. “Don’t dump the rice in the bowl, or it will get mushy,” she says. “And then you get pineapple at the bottom, to help you digest.” 

Nath’s take on pad thai incorporates organic daikon, garbanzo beans, and lentils in a sweet-and-sour sauce made with palm sugar and tamarind. “You’re not going to find anything else exactly like this,” she says.

Chomp’s general manager Jennifer Savage’s favorite dishes include Nath’s glass sweet potato noodles and the decadent lobster tom yum, a lobster tail in lemongrass broth flavored with makrut lime, tamarind, and chile. But she says it’s Nath’s warmth, as much as her cooking, that sets the tone for the entire food hall: “She’s the heart and soul of this place.”

Read more: See what's coming out of the kitchen at Leo's in Santa Fe, where Southeast Asian small plates are drawing crowds.