With the sole purpose of empowerment, the Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD) is a regional centre for people with disabilities. The centre is managed by the APCD Foundation, under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.
In collaboration with Charoen Pokphand Group (CP), APCD has opened a disability-inclusive restaurant at the APCD training building on Ratchawithi Road. Like the 60+ Plus Bakery and Chocolate Café, 60+ Plus Kitchen By CP provides training and employment opportunities in the food industry for people with disabilities.
"We have hotel service management, which includes restaurants, and that is part of our training, as well," says Piroon Laismit, APCD executive director. "Under our training, we offer hospitality services and cafe services. Now we have added a kitchen to the training, which includes customer service. With the 60 Plus Bakery, we had barista trainings and other trainings on how to run a cafe or restaurant. We work with a few hotels, who recruit staff from us because under Thai law, public and private organisations have to hire one disabled person for every 100 employees under Section 33 of the Persons with Disabilities Quality of Life Promotion Act," Piroon explains. The training programme for people with disabilities also provides the students with lunch and a transportation allowance, which is around B200-300 a day.
60+ Plus Kitchen provides food and drinks and also showcases the importance of collaborating with private companies for a disability-inclusive future. The restaurant has a private room, with a TV to hold meetings or business lunches. The menu, which serves Thai cuisine, is large, with some 30 dishes on it. A lot of the raw ingredients are bought from CP. Like the 60+ Plus Bakery, the Kitchen provides sustainable on-the-job training for people with disabilities to develop their skills in the food and bevearage industry.
Some of the best-sellers include the Kurobuta pork steak set (B290), which is served with a pumpkin cream soup, grilled vegetables and French fries. There is also Breaded fish and French fries (B220) and the classic Club sandwich with French fries (B150). The Thai dishes include Crispy papaya salad with shrimp (B150) or the Yum woon sen talay or spicy seafood salad with glass noodles (B120). You could also indulge in the dish rarely seen on menus, save for tourist spots: Pineapple fried rice with shrimp or chicken (B180), served in half a pineapple. There is also a favourite dish of mine on the menu: Larb moo tod (B120).
60+ Plus Kitchen also serves breakfast in the form of American breakfast (B140) and the Thai breakfast of pork or chicken boiled rice (B90), or Seafood boiled rice (B110). Though it is the Japanese salmon set served with Japanese salad and miso soup (B220) that sells like hot cakes at lunchtime. Desserts are Thai like the Water chestnuts in coconut milk (B55), Assorted beans in syrup (B55) and Taro dumplings in coconut milk (B55). The usual offerings of hot and cold drinks are on offer, as well. A plus in the city of Bangkok, is that there is an abundance of parking. Visit apcdfoundation.org/en/60plus-kitchen-cp.
