SAOY — Royal Cambodian Home Cuisine

Chef Nak’s award-winning SAOY cookbook featuring royal Cambodian cuisine

SAOY is Chef Nak’s exploration of Cambodia’s royal home-cooking tradition—a refined culinary heritage shaped by balance, precision, seasonality, and beauty.

The book is rooted in recipes compiled and taught by Her Royal Highness Princess Norodom Rasmi Sobbhana during the 1960s, preserving culinary knowledge connected to Cambodia’s royal household and an important chapter of the country’s food history.

Through careful research and interpretation, Chef Nak brings these recipes into the present while respecting their ingredients, techniques, stories, and cultural origins.

Rich photography and original artwork by young Cambodian artists make SAOY both a cookbook to use and a cultural work to preserve.

Recognized by the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards as “Best of the Best Cookbook in the World”.

Buy Internationally
Buy in Cambodia

Inside SAOY

A journey through Cambodia’s royal home cuisine, combining recipes with culinary history, techniques, ingredients, visual storytelling, and the philosophy of balance at the heart of Khmer cooking.

A traditional Asian meal set on a decorative blue and white porcelain tray with various small dishes of salad greens, and a floral garnished dish, all adorned with green leaves. The tray is placed on a brown cloth with black and gold bottles and a pa
Open book displaying a black-and-white photograph of people in a room and a colorful cover featuring a woman in traditional attire with tea and desserts; gold decorative object, small bowl with white rice, and ornate silver utensils on a dark wooden
A top-down view of a Vietnamese meal with a bowl of seafood salad, surrounded by leafy greens, a tomato, and a small dish of white sauce on an ornate tray with chopsticks.
An open book with watercolor illustrations of flowers and handwritten labels, a brass spoon on the table, a box of colorful limes and lemons, and a partially visible painting or print of a woman in traditional attire.
An open book showing illustrations and notes about coconuts, limes, and lemongrass on a wooden table, accompanied by a gold spoon, a closed book titled 'SAVOY,' and a bowl of limes and small yellow fruits.
Traditional Vietnamese dish of white rice noodles, garnished with green leaves, served on a decorative black and gold tray with lime slices, small golden objects, and a gold container with chopsticks.
A cook book open to a recipe titled Shrimp Paste Dip with Crispy Rice, featuring a black background and an image of deep-fried shrimp paste and crispy rice flakes, placed on a light wooden surface.
Open cookbook opened to a recipe for chicken spiced rice, with a picture of rice and spices on the left page.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • SAOY: Royal Cambodian Home Cuisine is a cookbook that honors Cambodia’s royal home cooking traditions—recipes, techniques, and flavor balance rooted in Khmer culinary heritage. It’s designed as both a cooking guide and a cultural record of refined Cambodian cuisine.

  • SAOY focuses specifically on Royal Cambodian home cuisine—a style known for precision, balance, elegance, and deeply Cambodian flavor foundations. Alongside recipes, it highlights the cultural context and culinary philosophy that shaped royal and heritage cooking in Cambodia.

  • Many recipes are achievable for home cooks, especially if you follow the steps and prepare ingredients in advance. Some dishes are more intricate (as royal cuisine often is), but SAOY is written to guide you clearly through techniques, pacing, and flavor building.

  • SAOY features classic Cambodian dishes presented through a royal home-cooking lens—aromatic soups, curries, relishes, salads, preserves, and celebratory recipes that showcase Khmer ingredients, careful seasoning, and refined presentation.

  • SAOY uses authentic Cambodian staples—such as kroeung (aromatic paste), fish sauce, palm sugar, kaffir lime, galangal, turmeric, and fresh herbs. Many ingredients can be found in Asian markets, and the book helps you understand substitutions while still keeping the true Khmer flavor profile.

  • SAOY has been recognized internationally, including being named “Best Cookbook in the World” by the Gourmand Awards. It’s widely regarded as a landmark publication for Cambodian cuisine and culinary heritage.

Chef Nak at the 2023 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Riyadh, where her SAOY cookbook received global recognition.