There are two schools of thought amongst Thais about the direction of Thai cuisine. The first is that Thai cuisine should remain authentic and the flavors should stick by the old recipes and the presentation should still remain the same. I like to call this school the traditionalist school. The second school, still uses Thai herbs and spices and mixes them with other non-Thai raw materials and transform Thai cuisine into what is known today as Fusion cuisine.

             If you look back at trends in French cuisine and the advent of Nouvelle Cuisine you will see that Paul Bocuse combined the Traditional minimalist style of Japanese cuisine with the traditional French cooking processes. I see this as the precursor of the Fusion food trend. As the world gets smaller and cuisine from all over the world come into contact with each other, it is only natural that fusion food should come into being. The world still thinks of French and Italian food as the haute cuisine.

             I want to see Thai food be elevated to that position and the only way to do that are to change the look and presentation of Thai food. We need to bring in new raw materials and change some cooking processes while at the same time still maintain the integrity of the recipes. It should taste like Thai food but looks much more modern. The eating culture of Thai cuisine will slightly change because each dish ordered will be a one-plate dish. Each person will order what he or she likes. You can elect to share it with others or not but there will still be a small side dish of steamed rice to eat with your main course.

              The traditionalist will say that I am crazy but most Thai cooks still don’t truly know what the original recipes for most dishes are! My father and I have been complaining all along that most Thai food nowadays seem to be very sweet. Even the green curry which in Thai is Gang Keiw Wan which literally mean green and sweet curry is so sweet because they say that the name tells you that it should be sweet. They did not realize that the word sweet in Gang Kiew Wan refers to the natural sweetness in the coconut milk! There should be a reference book, which tells all Thai cooks about the history of all Thai dishes and the basic recipes.

              They should understand the cooking processes. They should know more about the whys and hows of cooking rather than following recipes like a bible. Our educational system does not allow us to think and analyze the information we have because of the learn-wrote way of teaching. I must apologize for going on like this but I do feel very strongly about the teaching of Thai culinary arts. I think we should improve the curriculum and teach future chefs of Thailand to not only are technicians but creative thinkers, manager and businessman.

              I must apologize for the long-winded way of introducing a restaurant I am going to review today. Last week I had the opportunity to have lunch at Patara. There are about five branches of Patara in Europe and the owner is Khun Patara Sila-Orn who also owns the S&P chain of restaurants. Patara is a complete departure of the cuisine at S&P. Khun Patara or Pe Yai has created a Thai fusion restaurant in London and Europe and the cuisine is Thai Fusion. Because of the exposure to other food cultures and her love of food, Patara mixes that cuisine with Western ways of preparations.

              I like to think of her food as the new Thai Nouvelle cuisine, which elevates our food to the level of haute cuisine of the French. I have always wanted to cook Thai food this way and when I entertain at home I have created recipes on the same line as what they serve at Patara. I must admit that I went to have lunch at Patara with much trepidation. I have tasted their food in London and liked it but I was not sure if they could recreate it in Bangkok. I also fear that they would change their style of cooking in order to attract the local market. Well, much to my delight, the food was good and very imaginative. The restaurant is simply decorated, clean lines and fairly minimalist. We ordered Pomello salad with smoked salmon.

              It was a very good combination the sweet and sour taste of the pomello complimented the salty smoked salmon. I squeezed a little limejuice over the salmon because the pomello was of good quality consequently it was not sour enough. Then came Panaeng Curry marinated grilled lamb with Panaeng Sauce and fried Roti triangles. The lamb was tender and the Panaeng sauce was perfect not too sweet and has a wonderful aroma. Panaeng curry has to be a little sweet and at Patara they did it just right. There was a Thai grilled pork salad with spicy dressing with peanuts. This dish was also very refreshing and beautifully presented. There was a duck salad wrapped in Chinese flat noodles like a fresh spring roll, served with two kinds of dipping sauce. This was also great. A good example of making a Thai dish fusion is the Stirfry seafood in Tom Kah Gai sauce. Tom Kah Gai is a creamy (from coconut milk) Galangal sour soup but they used the soup as sauce for the stirfry. This was delicious and quite imaginative. Som Tum or Thai traditional papaya salad was served with grilled lamb rack chops and deep-fried sticky rice wrapped in pastry. I lasted much more than I have room to write about but I recommend that you should try this restaurant because it represents what I want to see the direction of Thai food to go. I think many Thais will not be able to accept it because it is new Thai food and it is fairy expensive. But if we are to elevate Thai cuisine to the level on par with French haute cuisine and get better price for our dishes, this is the way to go. I want to congratulate Patara for having the guts to open a Patara in Bangkok. We all need to open our culinary horizons and through experience Patara has created something new while still retaining the greatness of our culinary heritage.