Longteine De Monteiro is nationally known for introducing Cambodian food to the Western world. She was born and raised in Phnom Penh and in 1990 came to the United States where she and her husband founded The Elephant Walk Restaurant. She now has two thriving restaurants serving Cambodian and French cuisine in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a sister restaurant, Carambola, in Waltham, Massachusetts.

In 1998 De Monteiro published The Elephant Walk Cookbook, which was the first book to introduce traditional Cambodian cooking to an American audience. The cookbook covers a wide range of dishes, from the most sophisticated to the simplest. Writing the cookbook was motivated by her love for refined Cambodian cooking, which she sees as a dying art.

"You don't even find [this type of cuisine] in Cambodia now. It is gone because all the people who know the old cuisine are too old or were killed by the Khmer Rouge," she explains.

De Monteiro and her daughter are now working on a new cookbook they hope will help preserve Cambodian cooking for the next generation.

Asia Society spoke with Longteine De Monteiro about her experiences with cooking and her desire to keep the history of Cambodian cuisine alive.

How did you become interested in cooking?

I have always loved cooking; I have been cooking since I was a teenager. At age 16 I started to cook French food for my father and Cambodian food as usual with my mother. I learned by watching my mother but I didn't really cook Cambodian as much as French food.

I cooked French food everyday for lunch and dinner until I got married at age 19. Then we moved abroad because my husband was in foreign affairs; then I really had to supervise how to cook Cambodian cuisine for guests and receptions.

I started learning on my own but I did have my cook as well. As a result, I know all the big Cambodian cuisines. So when we lost the country [to the Khmer Rouge], I knew I had all the knowledge in me. I specialize in sophisticated cuisine, a more high-class cuisine.

When I opened a restaurant in the south of France, I was the only one who cooked there for 10 years and I was 42 years old at that time. It was a 50-seat restaurant. In France you cannot hire a lot of people because taxes are high so we had very few people to help. My husband was the host and we had one waitress and one person who helped me in the kitchen. We were open for lunch and dinner for 10 years.

So I had the opportunity to expose French people to Cambodian food. But French people's palettes are not as good as Americans. Americans know how to appreciate good cuisine. At the time, French people only knew Chinese and Vietnamese food because of the army who served in those countries and had subsequently retired in the south of France.

How did you start your restaurant business in the United States?

After 10 years in France, even though there was an economic crisis at the time, we were able to sell the restaurant. I moved to Boston in 1990, and in exactly one year I opened The Elephant Walk Restaurant. At first we opened with 40 seats because we didn't know how well it would go but eventually expanded to 100 seats. We were lucky to have a big space and a very understanding landlord who even helped us out financially.

Two months later, it was packed everyday because we got good reviews, so we opened the second one in Boston with 140 seats on Beacon Street. We opened the one in Waltham with a different concept. This one has no French food, only Cambodian food, serving family-style and traditional Cambodian cuisine. After that opening, Somerville was flooded and so we had to move and opened one in Cambridge with 240 seats.

Since September 11th, the restaurant business has suffered, but it is picking up slowly. We thought about opening a restaurant in New York City but now it is hard. I went to cook at the James Beard Foundation and everyone asks for a restaurant in New York. New York is a tough market, but there are no Cambodian restaurants there. I know if I opened one it would work but it is the cost of running it in New York that is so hard. It is a different cuisine that New Yorkers would appreciate, but after September 11th we are backing up a little bit.

These days my son-in-law is taking care of the Cambridge restaurant and my daughter is taking up a lot of my work. I taught her Cambodian cuisine and she is in charge now. I am a consultant whenever they need me.

Do you think Cambodian food has become more popular and well-known?

Cambodian food is becoming more well-known, especially in Boston. Customers really do appreciate it and can also tell how it is different from other Asian dishes. When people first came they felt that the food was more refined than Thai. One difference with Thai and Vietnamese food is that Cambodian uses prahok, a preserved fish, just a little bit for flavoring. There are distinctive ingredients and a certain freshness in our cooking. Everything is from scratch -- the pastes, fresh vegetables, everything is delivered fresh daily.

What is your favorite Cambodian dish?

I have a lot. Nataing, misean, and momoc are favorites. I enjoy refined food. This is something you don't find anywhere else; you don't even find it in Cambodia now. It is gone because all the people who know the old cuisine are too old or were killed by the Khmer Rouge. Very few are left. The cuisine in Cambodia now tastes more like Thai. All the people who now live in Phnom Penh have more or less been living in refugee camps and that is why they haven't learned these cuisines. For me personally it is very painful to see this happen. That is why I have to make an effort to write it all down in a cookbook. It is going to be a legacy for the next generation because the cuisine is now gone.

Have you been back to Cambodia recently?

I have been there twice already and I will be going again this year. I went with my friend, Ravynn Coxen, who has an organization called Nginn Karet Foundation (www.nkfc.org). She started the foundation in 1992 and has helped Cambodian people in seven villages. She started with extremely poor people who had nothing and helped to raise money for schools, seeds, chickens, and mosquito nets; teaching hygiene, and teaching how to dig wells to help villages survive on their own. In December I went with her to inaugurate two schools. They don't have many school buildings so they share these new schools. They need help and that is why Ravynn has dedicated her life to helping the country. They have better living conditions now and there have been many improvements, but they do need much more help.

Are you working on a new cookbook?

My daughter is in charge now and taking up my work. We are gathering recipes for a new cookbook. It will be out in a couple of years. It will be a mother and daughter joint effort. I will put traditional recipes together and more dishes using Cambodian ingredients. My daughter has wilder recipes.

Interview conducted by Cindy Yoon of AsiaSource.