Penarth Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups.

We will be profiling some of these businesses and organisations in a feature called 'Up Close in Penarth'.

Today, we speak with Chanya Slorach, whose most recent venture brings Thai takeaway to Penarth.

"We saw a big gap in the market for Thai food in Penarth," she tells Nub News. "There's only two in Cardiff and none here, so it was quite an obvious thing to do really."

Few Penarthians can claim to be better at finding and exploiting market blind spots than Chanya and her husband Hugo. Fewer still can claim to work nearly as hard.

Between them, the couple run the Royal Buildings cosmetic businesses Beauty Box and Wax & Glo, with Chanya acting as operations manager and Hugo performing the lionshare of back-office tasks like admin and marketing. Beauty Box is on the brink of opening its second location in Tenby.

Chanya also runs a beauty school in partnership with a local business, and the couple perform various community outreach programmes such as A Splash of Colour, which delivers beauty packages to care home residents during lockdown.

Their most recent venture is Onzon Thai, Penarth's very first Thai takeaway. Chanya runs the kitchen with friend Salah Roap, who owns Penarth's Sagoor Indian Takeaway with her husband. Onzon opened last week.

"It's been crazy," Chanya says. "We've been so busy because Penarth was crying out for it. There's five of us in the kitchen cooking good, homely Thai food."

Chanya grew up in Northeast Thailand, where her mother taught her to cook from a young age. Like many Thai people, Chanya moved to Bangkok when she reached adulthood. She took a bachelor's degree in marketing and PR before securing her first job was at a hotel. She then worked in a bank bank before deciding to pursue beauty.

"I became a qualified beautician in 2006 and met Hugo in Bangkok while he was working as an early digital nomad.

"We decided to move to the UK and when we arrived I did nothing for two months because I couldn't find a job. I was crying and saying 'I need to move back home' so since I found work I can't stop. It's good to work hard - I think it's learnt from my parents."

Chanya's work ethic goes a long way towards explains the quality of meals on Onzon's menu. The recipes are authentically Thai and the ingredients freshly imported from Southeast Asia.

"It's all about fresh home cooking. We order our ingredients from Baan Thai food (which Hugo and Chanya established when they first moved to Cardiff), meaning we get a fresh supply of food in from Thailand every Monday and Tuesday. Nothing is frozen."

Adding to the authenticity, all the kitchen staff are Thai women who live in the area. In spite of the busyness, there is a friendly and joyful atmosphere when I enter the kitchen.

"I don't like to be shouted at when I work, so I don't shout at people," says Chanya. "Most people work better when they're happy."

I first met Chanya on a Friday. I wanted to order my first Penarth Thai takeaway as soon as possible, but to my disappointment she tells me Onzon is currently only open from Monday to Wednesday.

"We are currently renting a commercial kitchen (Et Cetera's) that is only available on these days. We are looking for a new premises and are quite close to agreeing on one, but we don't want to say where yet."

Chanya and Hugo have two young sons and run more businesses than I previously imagined two people in their 30s could handle. During our interview, Chanya even hinted at the possibility of opening a Thai cafe in the not-too-distant future. I wonder if they might be spreading themselves too thin.

But then my first Onzon order arrives and it doesn't touch the sides. I suddenly remember that this industrious couple can do anything they put their minds to.

Find out how to order here.