Smithfield’s Chili Hill Food Market sells favorite Thai ingredients and grab-and-go fare
Akkhara Phayom and Tim Miller met on a Metro train in Washington, D.C., more than a dozen years ago, but their shared love of food dates back much further.
The couple, who were wed in both the U.S. and in Thailand, Phayom’s birthplace, opened Chili Hill Food Market in downtown Smithfield in November.
After seeing how “hot” their booth at the Smithfield Farmers Market was for three seasons, they decided it was time to delve into a brick-and-mortar business. They had their best year last year despite the pandemic’s renewed spread.
“We talked about it and dreamed about it,” Miller said. “It’s a big step even though it’s a small little place.”
Located at the corner of Main and Institute streets, Chili Hill Food Market is a specialty grocery store featuring Asian groceries with a Thai-centric theme, fresh produce, Virginia-grown products and homemade grab-and-go Thai food.
The roughly 800-square-foot leased space incorporates a retail shop and a kitchen. That’s where the duo cooks up a variety of meals such as steamed pork buns, curry, salads, soups, rice dishes and other traditional Thai meals.
It’s the fresh produce and authentic dishes that made Samantha Shoemaker a fan of Chili Hill’s booth at the farmers market years ago and now a weekly shopper in their store. A transplant from Northern Virginia, Shoemaker said she lived an international life and enjoys cooking Thai food.
“I was very much drawn to Chili Hill and their offerings,” she said. “It’s a really wonderful addition to our community … it diversifies what you can find locally, but is also cultivated locally.”
With their home just a block away from the store, the market owners walk to work each day. Grateful for the business’s humble beginnings, they also plan to maintain their spot at the farmers market when it reopens this spring.
Phayom learned to cook in her homeland and took several cooking classes while growing up, but earned a degree in graphic design. Her career took off in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, but a desire to see the U.S. led her to Washington, D.C., in 2009 and to Miller.
“She has a natural knack for cooking and she’s very creative and artistically gifted,” Miller said, noting a line of Phayom’s postcards are also sold in the shop.
Miller’s road into the culinary arts wasn’t a conventional one. After he earned his bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Longwood University, the Windsor native worked a corporate job. But his path was rerouted in 2000 when the stock market crashed. He decided to return to his first love of cooking, enrolled at Johnson & Wales University in Norfolk and earned his associate degree in the culinary arts.
A stint with Marriott led him to Washington, D.C., and then into the restaurant space as a sous chef working his way up to executive chef. Miller then shifted gears again to become the culinary director for the nonprofit D.C. Central Kitchen, which trains people coming out of incarceration, homelessness, and addiction programs in culinary and life skills.
Eight years ago, Miller and Phayom settled into a home in Smithfield and as parents to their daughter, Tahna, now 7. He became an account manager for the corporate food service company, Sodexo.
The seed of their latest endeavor took hold several years ago when they decided to plant Thai chili pepper plants on a hill at Miller’s parents’ homestead in Windsor.
“That was our original business,” Miller said. “We grew Thai chili peppers and Thai produce to sell to Thai restaurants and Asian shops in Newport News and Hampton.”
Still providing their hand-picked peppers and other homegrown produce including Asian greens, Thai eggplant, and herbs to local dining establishments, they bumped up production to use in the food they cook at the store and the farmers market.
“It saves us money, we know where it’s coming from, and we can grow what we want,” Miller said.
Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@insidebiz.com
