Phia Sing and His Recipe Books

Chaleunsilp Phia Sing, who was born at Luang Prabang in about 1898, was an extraordinarily versatile man, a sort of Laotian Leonardo da Vinci. He appears here in his capacity as the royal chef at the Palace in Luang Prabang, of which a view from the hill behind it is shown on the next page. But he was also the Royal Master of Ceremonies, at a court of many and beautiful ceremonies, a physician, architect, choreographer, sculptor, painter and poet. In addition, he had been the mentor of the youthful Princes Souvanna Phouma and Souvannavong, and accompanied them when they went to Hanoi to pursue their studies at the university there in the 1920s.