From nanny to restaurateur with 17 branches of Rosa’s Thai Café
Saiphin Moore, raised on a farm in the mountains in northern
Thailand, left the comfort of her home for life as an 18-year old nanny in Hong Kong, not speaking any English or Cantonese. Years later, she and her hus- band Alex co-founded Rosa’s Thai Café, launching the first one in London in 2008. In February and May 2019, she opened her first branches outside London, one in Liverpool and the latest in Leeds. She has also published two Thai cookbooks. Here is a woman who is living her dream and has no plans of stopping.
Having moved to the UK with her hus- band and children in 2005 after selling her Thai restaurant in Hong Kong, Saiphin didn’t know what she wanted to do. At a friend’s suggestion, she started taking her home-cooked Thai dishes to her friend’s office. “That way I could see what the people in London liked”. Soon after, in order to meet demand, she had a food stall in Brick Lane Market.
In 2008 she took on a shop in
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Spitalfields. In the fiercely competitive bidding process she played her trump card by presenting her fresh spring rolls “with my peanut sauce, my special one, the bestseller in my restaurant in Hong Kong”. Here, the first Rosa’s Thai Café was born.
The Moores had total conviction and immersed themselves in their new ven- ture whatever it took. They couldn’t get a UK credit card due to lack of credit history. She recalls thinking: “What are we going to do? We have no money! So, we set up our restaurant with a Hong Kong credit card and a tiny bit of the money from selling my farm in Thailand.”
By 2009, Saiphin had her eye on a sec- ond site in Soho. Again, they didn’t have any money. When she suggested selling their property in Hong Kong to finance the second site, her husband exclaimed: “Oh my God, selling our property?” and her response was “yes, put everything in”. So, all on black then. This commit- ment and total belief in her food and the concept took them on a journey
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