Tastemakers | Chef’s Dinner with Jeff Chanchaleune of Ma Der Lao Kitchen

Chef Jeff Chanchaleune, a 2020 James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Best Chef Southwest, has come full circle with his take on Lao cuisine at his latest restaurant, Ma Der Lao Kitchen. He is best known for Goro Ramen & Gun Izakaya. Jeff & Ma Der have recently earned a spot on The New York Time’s 2022 list of 50 Best Restaurant in America, as well as, Bon Appetit’s 2022 list of 50 Best New Restaurants in America.

Chef Jeff was practically born into the restaurant industry. His father was classically trained under the American Culinary Federation program in the early 80s and became the executive chef at several well-known restaurants and hotels throughout Oklahoma City. Jeff grew up in these kitchens and his parent’s diner.

Jeff began his first real job as a dishwasher at ‘Sushi Neko’ in Oklahoma City at the age of 16. He quickly moved up from dish to prep and then the hot food line. He spent nearly six years there before moving on to ‘In the Raw’ to learn sushi for three years. He worked his way through high school and college in these kitchens hoping he’d finally get out of the restaurant industry.

Jeff graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication (advertising emphasis). From there he moved to Portland, Oregon, looking for work in advertising creative. While in Portland he helped his aunt open a sushi restaurant. Jeff had a short stint there before moving back to Oklahoma City where he finally landed an art direction/graphic design position at an advertising agency where we worked for two and a half years.

Although Jeff was great at his job in advertising, he started to realize that something was missing from his life. He spent his free time at the office looking at food websites. He had the urge to cook all the time. He made the decision to quit his stable career to move to Chicago to learn more Japanese cuisine. He staged in several kitchens before landing the right job at Arami, where he learned ramen and yakitori. His goal was to bring back to Oklahoma City what he learned and experienced. After a few short months in Chicago, Jeff relocated back to Oklahoma City to open Kaiteki Ramen food truck in 2013 – the city’s first introduction to ramen.

The food truck was not the end goal. It was a brick-and mortar location. After a year of operating the truck, chef Jeff started doing pop-up dinners called Project Slurp for a year before finding the home for Goro Ramen. Goro opened in 2016 and was in full swing before Jeff opened his next concept called Gun Izakaya. That only lasted 6 months due to covid-19. Tori Tori Fried Chicken had a short stint in between the closing of Gun and the opening of Ma Der Lao Kitchen in September 2021. After 17+ years of cooking Japanese food, he went back to his roots to cook his culture’s food – Lao Cuisine.