Only one chef has proved her mastery over celebrity chef Bobby Flay in the Food Network's Pad Thai Throwdown challenge: Nongkran Daks.

Now, the master chef and owner of Virginia's renowned Thai Basil restaurant shares her secrets for creating Thai cuisine's most beloved dishes at home—using ingredients that can be found in most grocery stores.

In Nong's Thai Kitchen, Daks teams up with veteran food writer Alexandra Greeley to show readers how to prepare classic Thai recipes such as:

Chicken with Thai Basil

Shrimp Soup in Coconut Milk

Spicy Beef Salad with Mint Leaves

Roasted Duck Curry

Thai food is famous for its balance of sweet, sour, salty and hot flavors. This unique symphony of tastes and sensations is why Thai restaurants and cookbooks have entered the mainstream. What most people don't realize is that once elusive Thai ingredients such as fish sauce, lemongrass, coconut milk, cilantro, basil and shallots are now easily found, making it easy to prepare mouthwatering Thai dishes at home for far less money than they would cost in a restaurant. All the recipes in this essential Thai cookbook are healthy, easy to make and inexpensive, so step into Nong's Thai Kitchen and begin a culinary journey to the tropical heart of Asia!

A native of southern Thailand, Nongkran Daks' introduction to cooking began at age seven. She would get up at 4:00 am daily to pound curry paste. Later, as a college student in Bangkok, Nongkran worked at a restaurant with the unlikely name "Dairy Queen", while earning a degree in agricultural economics. Subsequently, as the spouse of a diplomat she used her husband and children as willing guinea pigs for dishes acquired during family travels.

Before launching the Thai Basil, Nongkran taught cooking and catered in Honolulu, the Washington, DC area, China, Laos, Taiwan and Thailand. She also ran a snack bar in Bangkok featuring Asian and Western dishes and a mean cheesecake.

At her Thai Basil restaurant, Nongkran seeks maximum authenticity. She also offers cooking classes, catering and often lectures and conducts demonstrations on Thai cuisine.

Nongkran's cuisine has received favorable coverage in the New York Times, USA Today, the Washington Post, Washingtonian magazine, the Zagat and AOL and Gayot guide. Her restaurant also earned the government of Thailand's "Thai Select" certification.

In 2009 Nongkran beat Celebrity Chef Bobby Flay in a Pad Thai competition on his Food Network program Throwdown! In 2010, she filmed a cooking segment with Samantha Brown, part of a show about Thailand which aired on the Travel Channel.

Multi-cultural and multi-lingual, Nongkran is a member of the culinary society, Les Dames d'Escoffier. Her first cookbook, "The Secrets of Thai Cooking," was self-published. Subsequently, Nongkran and Alexandria Greeley co-authored two Thai and a Vietnamese cookbooks. Their newest cookbook is "Nong's Thai Kitchen".

"[…] It was easy for me to embrace and enjoy the cookbook Nong's Thai Kitchen by Chef Nongkran Daks and Alexandra Greeley. […] This new Thai cookbook is the source for anyone who loves Thai cooking and will appeal to both beginners and experts in the kitchen. There are 84 doable recipes for everyday cooking. I have cooked several recipes since I got this cookbook." —Betty Ann Besa Quirino, Asian in America Magazine

"In Nongkran Daks's books, difficult recipes become easy enough for a novice. Recently, I made one of the recipes you'll find in Nong's Thai Kitchen. Once I had the ingredients in hand, I was able to prepare a delicious dish in five minutes. So I salute the author." —Charas Srisutham, Thai Airways International

"I had the joy of cooking with Nongkran and trying my hand at her Pad Thai recipe. You'll never want to order it from your local restaurant again. What makes the dish is her sauce which was a spicy sweet glaze that coated every noodle. After begging Nongkran I was lucky enough to get the recipe and now everyone's lucky to have it. I've now cooked Nongkran's Pad Thai a few times for both friends and family." —Samantha Brown, host of several Travel Channel shows including: Girl Meets Hawaii, Passport to Europe, Passport to China, Great Weekends and Samantha Brown's Asia

"Nongkran Daks was born to be a chef, and has been uncompromising in her standards for using fresh, top quality ingredients to create bright, authentic flavors served in her restaurant, Thai Basil, in the Washington, D.C area. … The secret for her success is the fresh ingredients and her masterful blending of Thai herbs and spices. No one makes these dishes better than Nong. We are very pleased to learn that she will again be sharing the secrets of her best dishes with discerning cooks in this new cookbook." —Darryl Johnson, former U.S Ambassador to Thailand

"I cannot imagine a better guide, instructor, inspiration, and mentor for any of us who love Thai food and long to understand it, learn about it, and become fluent in its pleasures and delights." —from the foreword by Nancie McDermott, author of Quick & Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes

"A chef in suburban Washington, D.C., Daks offers recipes for all manner of Thai dishes to re-create at home. Ever-popular satay can be grilled indoors or out, and the spicy peanut-coconut sauce that makes satay almost universally appreciated turns out to be easy to reproduce from ingredients available in most well-stocked supermarkets. Nong wants her food to be good for you, too. She offers a non-sugary nut snack that looks like savory peanut brittle. Sweet corn, not often seen in Asian cooking, makes a striking cold salad that would complement any buffet table. —Booklist

"The minute I saw that Nongkran Daks had a book coming out I wanted it. Now do not laugh, but I have been obsessed with trying her food (her restaurant is located near(ish) my in-laws' home in Northern Virginia) ever since I saw her beat Bobby Flay on a Throwdown for Pad Thai." —The Spiced Life blog

"Do look out for the book. […] What I like this cookbook is that the author has explained in detail the various Thai ingredients." —ET Speaks from Home blog