Making the difficult look easy
Actor and restaurant owner Phol Tantasathien demonstrates what it takes to be a good chef
He sat in a comfortable chair on the second floor of his restaurant Summer, the sister restaurant to Spring. Relaxed but animated, soft-spoken but articulate, he talked about one of his favourite subjects – food.
Food presenter, restaurateur, author, TV producer and star Phol Tantasathien also described what he would show students of the tourism and hospitality industry at a special seminar sponsored by Le Cordon Bleu Dusit Culinary School.
“It’s all in the technique,” he explained, raising a hand slightly to mime fingers slightly curled around a cooking implement.
Alas for all his fans, the seminar is taking place this morning, where he is demonstrating how to make two dishes: Spinach Ravioli with Sage Butter and Banana Split.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it?
Not really, as the more than 30 students of Le Cordon Bleu Dusit Culinary School and around 20 of Phol’s very own fans are discovering as they watch Phol demonstrate basics of the culinary art.
Some students are joining the course simply for the recipes, Phol explained at the interview. “Recipes are not enough if you want to be a really good chef, but they do give you hope – hope that you can produce a really good dish, hope that you’ll be successful,” he said.
At the seminar, Phol, in fact, is starting with two recipes but these are by two internationally known chefs, famed American chef Thomas Keller and Gordon Ramsay.
With one recipe, Phol is demonstrating how to make ravioli fresh and how to make the spinach
ravioli with sage butter so tasty that it doesn’t need a heavy sauce with it.
As for the banana split, “It’s much more than what you can find at a local ice cream parlour,” he smiled. Bananas are among the ingredients, of course, but they’re transformed through special techniques, and the ice cream is home-made.
Under Phol’s guidance, the participants are discovering how the right techniques transform the dishes into something special.
Technique is not enough, however, if you want to be a good chef, as Phol pointed out.
“You need to understand your ingredients, what they can do and what they can’t do,” he said.
If you want more – if you want to start a restaurant, for instance – you need to study restaurant management, he added.
Among the list of his wide-ranging interests, Chef Phol is also the first global Brand Ambassador for Le Cordon Bleu Dusit, and his seminar is aimed at providing the platform to promote Le Cordon Bleu Australia.
At the Le Cordon Bleu Career Presentation portion of the seminar, Sarunthunyaros Pinthong is explaining that for people interested in a career in the hospitality and tourism industry, LCB Australia had two campuses, one in Adelaide and one in Sydney, that offer a range of programmes in cuisine and patisserie.
These courses take nine months, plus an additional six months paid work experience in four- and five-star hotels in Australia.
“All the courses are taught in English, and even the work experience is conducted in English,” Phol said.
He himself is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu Dusit, and his
head chef of his restaurants is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu Australia.
In the kitchen
_ For more information on Le Cordon Bleu Dusit, an open house is being held on September 6 from 2 to 4pm, and another on November 15 at the same time.
_ To find out more about Le Cordon Bleu activities in Thailand and in Australia, contact Supapit Potip, senior marketing manager, LCB Thailand at (088) 201 5169 or email: [email protected]).
_ To find out what other activities Phol has planned, you can find him on Facebook or on his food website www.PholFoodMafia.com.
