Find good ingredients. Good palm sugar, good tamarind, good fish sauce – whatever you are using make it good quality. That's the case with any type of cuisine but it's crucial with Thai food.”
This means using freshly squeezed lime and proper Thai basil, which is available in good Asian grocers. The chef recommends “the awfully named” brand Megachef for fish sauce. “It's fantastic and I use it all the time in Thailand”.