The Nation

Last month I participated in the World Gourmet Festival for the first time at the Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok. This festival has been held for the past three years and each year the hotel had arranged big name Chefs from all over the world to come and present their culinary masterpieces and conduct cooking classes for one whole week. This event has been very successful in bringing Gourmets in Thailand out in droves to taste and learn about the cooking techniques of these famous chefs and their signature dishes and cuisine. I thought that this event would also be a great for Thai chefs and the government to promote Thai food and Thai raw materials. At the same time we could use this event as a networking tool for Thailand to introduce real Thai food to these world renowned chefs and the uniqueness of our cuisine. By participating in this event I noticed that these chefs are quite receptive to new ideas and more than happy to learn about Thai food and taste real Thai food. They are even more adventurous in trying different kinds of Thai food.

at my food station during the cocktail function

Discussing-the-Thai-roast-tomato salsa with some of the famous great chefs

As the government has been touting the fact that we want to be the world’s kitchen I feel that the lack of participation from the government represents a misopportunity.
From my point of view, I don’t think Thai cuisine will reach a level of Haute Cuisine of the French or the Italian. It is all in the perception of us Thais. I think we take for granted the fact that we are blessed with such abundance of raw materials to cook with and such high quality and diversity of our food in this country. We think Thai food is ordinary and put so much importance on Western raw materials. I must admit that I am certainly guilty of this. I love foie gras, smoked salmon, grave lox and truffle oil. But if we are serious about wanting to promote Thai Food we can do more to educate non-Thai and Thai chefs to understand about our cuisine and have them create dishes that have Thai ingredients and Thai influence and serve then in a way that suits their particular eating culture.

my-staff-and-hotel-chefs-preparing pommello salad with smoked salmon

curried-fish-mousse-in-ceramic-spoon

Next year I think I will avail myself to working with these chefs and giving them some insights into the dos and don’ts for Thai food. They need to understand about our eating culture and mixes of herbs and spices. The logic, rational and history of each dish needed to be explained to both Western and Thai chefs. I have come to realize that it is not enough to complain about a Farang Chef making Som Tum (papaya salad) using ginger in it! You need to explain to them why! I hope that I will be able to participate and work with these chefs in next year event and have them all come to my kitchen to cook and eat together and exchange information. In this way I will be able to help the country in making people more aware of Thai food and in the process create dishes using Thai ingredients for the haute cuisine table.
At the event I cooked three dishes for the opening night cocktail opening party. I made steamed curried fish mousse with mussels served in a ceramic spoons as cocktail snacks. The smoked salmon and pommello salad in endive leaves was the other Thai western invention which I borrowed the recipe from Patara restaurant which has eight branches all over the world with two in London. My piece de resistance is grilled marinated lamb rack chops with roasted tomato salsa which I will give you the recipe below.

Grilled-lamb-rack-chops-with-roasted tomato salsa

pommello-salad-with-smoke-salmon

Marinated Lamb Rack Chops
Ingredients:

Lamb racks, frenched and cut into
individual chops removing most of the fat                 6      racks

Marinade Ingredients:
Chopped Garlic                                                    1      Tbsp.
Red wine                                                            1      cup
Dijon Mustard                                                      1      Tbsp.
Worcestershire Sauce                                           4      Tbsp.
Rosemary                                                           1      Tbsp.
Salt/Pepper                                                        as needed
Soy sauce                                                          4      Tbsp.
Olive oil                                                             ½     cup

Directions:

Make the marinade by mixing all the marinade ingredients together.
Marinate the lamb rack pieces over night.
At time of service, grill all the lamb pieces to medium rare and topped with roasted tomato salsa.

Roasted Tomato Salsa
Ingredients:

Long red and green chili peepers, roasted                3      each
Thai Chili peppers, roasted                                    5      each
Shallots, roasted                                                 5      each
Garlic, raosted                                                    7      each
Whole tomato roasted                                         1-2    each
Fish sauce                                                          3      Tbsp.
Tamarind Pulp juice                                              2      Tbsp.
Lime Juice                                                          1      Tbsp.
Sugar                                                                1      Tsp.
Pla Rah Juice (fermented fish), optional                    1      Tbsp.
Maeng Dah extract                                              ½     Tsp.

Directions:

Pound all roasted ingredients together in a pestle and mortar or blend everything in blender or food processor using pulse button. The resultant sauce should be slightly lumpy.
Correct the seasoning with the rest of the ingredients. The Pla Rah and the Maeng dah extract is optional because they are both acquired taste items. Spoon a small amount of this salsa on top of the grilled chop.