Bangkok as gourmet paradise
Top chefs and restaurants pool their resources for this week's "Chim" festival, proceeds to a good cause
THE HEART-WARMING success of Bangkok Restaurant Charity Week in 2013 has convinced Thailand’s leading chefs to team up once again, this time with the culinary summit renamed Chim Bangkok to highlight the “taste” aspect. Proceeds from the extravaganza – continuing all this week and through the weekend – are going to the Royal Project Foundation.
Narong Roojum, the former editor of Thailand Restaurant News who also organised last year’s event, says the changes are intended to raise the bar for the Thai dining sector further, with the aim of making Thailand an international destination for gourmands.
“I see myself as just the coordinator who gets all the parties together,” he says. “It wouldn’t be a success without the contributions of all the restaurant owners and the chefs like David Thompson, Gaggan Anand and Ian Chalermkittichai, who are charging no fees.
“This year we’re again supported by Jagota, the gourmet-ingredients supplier to the leading restaurants in Thailand. The company is providing all the fresh ingredients we’re using.”
Over the course of 10 days, foodies are enjoying both gastronomical and educational delights.
On Monday chefs Thompson, Anand and Morten Nielsen will conduct a workshop at Le Cordon Bleu Dusit, with space for just 50 participants.
On Wednesday and Thursday the younger generation of celebrity cooks will entice the modern palate at an event called Chim Young Chef, at Aston on Sukhumvit Soi 31. And Chim Around Bangkok involves a whole slew of promotions at leading restaurants, all at affordable prices.
The festival will be capped with the Chim Gastro Gala Dinner on December 16 at the JW Marriott Bangkok, with eight chefs in charge of the gourmet French cuisine.
One of the grandest events of the week will be Chim Thai on Tuesday at the Dusit Thani Bangkok’s restaurant Benjarong. It will feature seven courses of the best of the country’s dishes and wines selected by connoisseur Viroj Leetrakul.
Chef Nooror Steppe of the Blue Elephant will whet the appetite with a trio of appetisers – a laab of tuna, avocado salsa with lobster and a Thai-style dumpling. Then comes Nielsen’s fried catfish in spicy salad and crabmeat-tom-yum custard, an explosion of flavours.
Chef Ton from LeDu will next challenge the taste buds with fish-sauce-marinated mantis shrimp, spicy cilantro snow and cucumber. It’s a fun, innovative rendition of the famous kung chae nam pla.
Chef Noom Nelson’s sweet corn soup follows, served with Thai-rice crackers, crabmeat and grated sous-vide foie gras, a hot and cold combination that creates an interesting variety of textures.
Chefs Bo and Dylan from Bo.Lan will offer rice noodles with chilli-jam dressing and chicken, based on a recipe from an old cookbook by Mom Chao Ying Chancharoen Ratchanee. The sweetness, nuttiness and slight sourness of the dressing is balanced by crunchy greens, making it a very pleasing dish.
The main course comes in a set. Thompson from Nahm will serve the sour-spicy southern Thai curry do nae with a pomfret fillet and coriander, accompanied by sweet pork belly and salty sun-dried squid.
Chef Chumpol Jangprai from Siam Wisdom provides the dessert, a platter of “greatest hits” like mango and sticky rice, sun-dried banana, a toasted rice ball (khao tu), and Western-inspired items such as citrus sorbet and souffle of banana and coconut puree (kluay buad chee).
POSTPONE THAT DIET
Chim Bangkok 2014 is taking place at several venues around the city through December 16.
Find out more at www.ChimBangkok.com.
