About

A little about me

Hi! I’m Patty – the creator of The PKP Way. I was born and raised in Southern California and currently reside in Los Angeles with my husband in a multigenerational home.

I met my husband, Warren, as we were both beginning our third year of college, while pledging a co-ed service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega. We almost instantly connected over our favorite TV show – The O.C. We knew we wanted to get married after a few years, but at my dad’s request, we were not married until Warren completed pharmacy school and I completed my M.S. in Food Science. We tied the knot after seven years of courtship in 2014, with a beautiful outdoor ceremony and reception in Thousand Oaks.

 

During our free time we enjoy anything Disney-related, hiking, traveling, photography, trying new eateries, movies, and crossing thrill-seeking activities off our bucket list (e.g. Sea Trek helmet diving).

What you’ll find on The PKP Way

My first love is baking. I love all things that have to do with baking ingredients and baking equipment! From perusing recipes to looking through the oven door during the baking process, I enjoy it all! My least favorite part about the process would be the clean-up, but we’ll talk about that another day. You can read more about my food story and how I fell in love with baking here. Since my husband and I cannot live on a diet of cookies and cupcakes alone (one can dream), I have needed to hone my cooking skills beyond pasta paired with jarred sauce and store-bought rotisserie chicken over white rice (not to say that we don’t turn to those when we need an “emergency meal”). On The PKP Way, you will find recipes that that are successes in our household – those that get us through the work week and slightly more extravagant (nothing too crazy) recipes that we enjoy over the weekend. Recipes from my parents’ Thai restaurant are also present, tweaked specifically for the home cook.

To mix things up a little, I also share aspects of our otherwise boring lives such as our Disney adventures, travel and hiking excursions, and anything that I believe adds value to our lives at the moment (and may even add value to yours too!).

The Birth of The PKP Way

After college, I entered the work force and joined the biotech industry. One day during lunch a co-worker introduced me to a blog and opened my eyes to a whole new world. I had no idea such a thing existed. I began doing my own research and found so many bloggers that I enjoyed following.  I toyed around with the idea of creating a blog as a hobby until finally I created one. I ran the blog for a few months, posting sporadically as my work schedule permitted. I came to realize that I underestimated the amount of work that goes into a blog that I would be proud to call mine. So I decided to abandon it because I was not ready to dedicate the time needed to grow it into something substantial.

I left the biotech industry and transitioned into the chemical industry, all while following my favorite bloggers and allowing my food interests to consume my mind. Wanting to merge my food interests with my science background, I returned to graduate school to earn my M.S. in Food Science. Upon graduation, I excitedly entered the food industry, working as a QA Manager. Surprisingly, I did not find the job satisfaction that I was looking for and spent my evenings perusing blogs and tinkering in my favorite workspace – the kitchen. I dreamt about my own blog for years, would get content ideas, and constantly finished the sentence, If I had a blog, I would… After much reflection and consultation with the most important people in my life, I made the very difficult decision to resign from my post in the food industry and invest wholeheartedly in my own aspirations – my very own blog.

The Name

My full name is Patty Kraikittikun. Since people have trouble pronouncing my last name on the first attempt, and calling me “Patty” is not an option, they inevitably begin calling me PK. Once I got married, I added my husband’s last name (Phuong), making it even longer. Naturally, people proceeded to call me PKP.

I decided to name my site “The PKP Way” because I’ve always walked to the beat of my own drum. I feel that I am always off-beat from everyone else (not only while dancing). There are times when I’m more amused than everyone and times when I’m the last one to get a joke. Other times, I fall in love with the fashions from last season but hated it when it was in-style. Most recently, there’s the commencement of this blog (try explaining the concept of resigning to start a blog to your parents. Heck, try explaining a blog period to your parents). I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. The PKP Way is about embracing myself, being true to who I am, and letting go of any inhibitions.

Photography

All food photographs found on The PKP Way are shot by me (unless otherwise noted), with Warren being the occasional styling assistant and harsh-sun-blocker.

I shoot with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and my camera bag currently consists of the following lenses:

 35mm f/1.4L | 70-200mm f/2.8L IS | 85mm f/1.8 | 50mm f/2.5 Macro | 24-70mm f/2.8L (1st generation) The new one can be found here

My first DSLR (Canon Rebel XSi) is still around and I pull it out in absolute emergencies (i.e. I ran out of batteries on the 5D).  I also have the Speedlite 430EX II, but shoot mainly in natural light.

Lately, I’ve been shooting with Warren’s Nikon D5100 and Tamron AF 60mm f/2.0 while I save up for this.  

Site Design

I designed The PKP Way using WordPress and the Sugar & Spice Theme. I’ve made multiple edits to the theme to customize it to match the vision in my head. I have no formal training in coding, and mainly edited the code by Googling (I love that that’s a word!) and trial and error.

Once I think I’m done coding, I have Warren play around with the site. His detail-oriented eye and constructive criticism are my resources for site refinement.

Contact Me

You can contact me via thepkpway@gmail.com or my contact page.  

I can also be found on:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Instagram
• Foodgawker
• BlogLovin’

Note: This page contains affiliate links that help make The PKP Way possible.