Paste Thai

At Paste Thai, the food is authentic, upscale and made from scratch. If a chef I respect raves about a restaurant, I tend to take notice. So when Kathi Riley Smith—once the executive chef at San Francisco’s Zuni Cafe—told me about Paste Thai in Davis, I suggested we go there for lunch. “I don’t think I’ve ever had Thai food made with fresher ingredients,” she said. We were joined by a mutual friend, longtime caterer and cooking instructor Roxanne O’Brien. Kathi let Rox do the ordering—“as long a