Gaggan the alchemist.
Chefs in the open kitchen sing "Hey Jude" and bang out a rhythm. Diners seated at the L-shaped counter sing along before the song segues into "We Will Rock You" and the natural-wine-fuelled crowd becomes more raucous.
(I say "crowd" but there are only 14 punters and a similar number of people in the kitchen.)
Let's say hello to Gaggan restaurant in Bangkok.
Dinner is a show as much as a meal, narrated by chef Gaggan Anand, with diner participation from guessing ingredients to stepping into the kitchen to do a little cooking. All to a soundtrack of hits, mainly from the 1980. but taking in the Beatles and Bjork.
The Kolkata-born chef describes his flagship restaurant as a food theatre with progressive Indian cuisine. That doesn't quite capture the madness or the tricks, where you cannot be quite sure what you are eating.
The evening is divided into two Acts: The first 11 courses are single-bite snacks (single, though not simple) and the other 11 more substantial. Expect dishes such as Green Asparagus Sunflower, Coffee From Waffle, Jellied Tomato Blood Latte and Chicken Charcoal Wada. Each accompanied by funky natural wines. It's a blast.
Coffee Foie Waffle.
Such showmanship can serve to distract from gimmicky cooking, and Gaggan is not one to hold back from seeking to razzle-dazzle you. But he is a genuinely creative chef,
His philosophy of food?
"The most important element of cooking is that it should taste good," he says. "Coming from India and living in Bangkok, I have evolved to give sweet, sour, salty, and spicy in the same bite, like four members of a rock band."
The flavours can be intense. A snack called Broccoli Cookie Dough took me straight back to school 60 years ago. (I disliked the brassica then and haven't revised my opinion.) And don't get me started on Beetroot Gorgonzola Below, But Coffee Foie Waffle featured two of my favourite things, And Seabream Aged Basmati Leaves was just my cup of tea. (As were the wines by group beverage manager Milan Rukavina.)
It's all a long way from my first visit to Bangkok, in 1981. Thai cuisine was unknown in the U.K. and restaurants were very simple. Hotel dining rooms were the safest bet and the first time I walked into a restaurant I ordered Chinese food (beef in oyster sauce. to be honest) as I had no idea what things like tom yum goong or pad dhai were.
Chef Gaggan outside his restaurants.
This visit was a press trip to some of the city's finest restaurants, showcasing sophisticated cuisine and service and a food scene that has evolved remarkably in recent years. Because no one wants to read a post of more than a few hundred words, and I have no wish to test your boredom threshold, I am going to tell you only very briefly about some other restaurants that deserve considerably more attention.
Oh well. No one ever said a blog was too short.
(I was invited to Bangkok, so didn't pay my way. Dinner at Gaggan costs 16.000 baht, or £365, inclusive of a wine or soft-drink pairing. No rebate for cooking your own food.)
This is chef Gaggan's casual Indian-Mexican restaurant. Yes, you heard it right. I think I shall let Gaggan explain that one:
"The kitchen itself, helmed by Chef Hernán Crispín Villalva and Chef Roshan Kumar, has created a ‘Fantasy Cuisine’ menu that blends both Mexican and Indian Cuisine. Based strongly off their roots, it emphasizes on reinventing or getting re-inspired from classic, homey, style dishes."
Gaggan says he sees parallels between the cuisines and he represents his approach as a love story between a Mexican girl and an Indian boy. I'm not personally convinced that this is a marriage made in heaven, but all the dishes work because they actually taste good, and you don't need to swallow the concept to enjoy the flavours.
By now, you may have started to suspect who was mainly responsible for my Bangkok trip. Nonetheless, I am going to say entirely shamelessly that I enjoyed this pop-up at Louis Vuitton enormously. I mean, I was sold on the beauty of the flat white before I even hit the Champagne and cakes, which I did rather enthusiastically. (Vix Rathour is head chef; and Dej Kewkacha is the pastry genius.)
Each dish is a work of art, including a globe that comes apart to reveal sweet treats from around the world, reflecting the journey of Louis Vuitton luggage. Everything is so delicate: The textures, the taste, the vision. Gaggan's creativity isn't smoke and mirrors. though there are plenty of those here, too. I even wore my matelot shirt to pose with one of my fellow travellers, the Colombian television chef, Margarita Bernal.
I absolutely loved this Sino-Thai restaurant in an historic building where the family of chef Pichaya "Pam" Soontornyanakij lived for four generations. (Potong holds one Michelin star and she won Asia's Best Female Chef 2004.)
Potong is beautifully designed and lit. It is housed over four floors, including a very cool bar called Opium that honours the pharmaceutical history of the Sino-Portuguese building, which was once amongst the tallest in Bangkok.
Each dish is created around five elements: Salt, Acid, Spice, Texture, and Maillard Reaction". The tasting menu features several standout courses, including Historical Stories (above): crab roe / blue crab / brioche; and Heart and Soul, a deconstructed pad thai with Nakhon si Thammarat shrimp and shrimp shot.
This is another beautiful restaurant, this time with a terrace overlooking a royal temple and the Reclining Buddha. Nusara is named after the grandmother of Chef Thitid “Tonn” Tassanakajohn and he seeks to honour her with a cuisine that he describes as neither traditional nor modern, respectful of history yet also contemporary.
This translates into small bites and larger dishes that are almost pictures on a plate. He uses the best ingredients to create beautiful plates with a lightness of touch, where Thai flavours are the inspiration for a wider culinary vision. Dishes on the tasting menu include Blue Swimming Crab Curry & Crispy Rice Noodles; Green Curry, Smoked Chicken & Dumpling; and Smoked Short Ribs & Holy Basil Leaf.
Tonn has worked at some of New York's best restaurants, including Eleven Madison Park, The Modern and Jean Georges. He has won numerous awards, and if you haven't heard of him, it is a reasonable bet to say that you will. Nusara is great.
Le Du is another fashionable and highly acclaimed restaurant of Tonn and his business partners . It's a modern Thai-inspired establishment where the focus is very much on local, seasonal ingredients. The philosophy actually reminds me a little of (pre-vegan) Daniel Humm at Eleven Madison Park, with respect for produce and deceptive simplicity.
The plates are uncluttered and the flavors are clean. Tonn offers four courses and tasting menus that, he says, feature the extraordinary agricultural bounty of Thailand and the centuries-old culinary cultures that have taken root. Dishes may include Squid, Bone Marrow; Grouper, Lotus Stem, Salted Fish; and Thai Wagyu. Chili, Watermelon.
Its multiple accolades are very well deserved.
Sühring is extraordinary.
Twins Thomas & Mathias Sühring have achieved something really special, serving the finest gourmet German cuisine across the world from their homeland. I first visited Germany more than 50 years ago. I even wrote a strange dining guide to World Cup cities in 2006: (Pizza in Gelsenkirchen and currywurst in Kaiserslautern set the tone.)
I've never experienced German cooking like this: Precise, perfectly balanced and excellently executed with a lightness of touch. Technical but with soul: Kraftwerk meets Bowie in Berlin. (Not that either ever won two Michelin stars.)
I particularly enjoyed the snacks, whose visual appeal is matched only by the flavor. But dished include marginally more hearty fare, such as Atlantic Turbot Roasted on the Bone: Fricassee / clam / caviar; and Duck Aged for 10 days: Plum / Grue de cacao / vanilla.
So there you have it: Where to eat very well, and rather fancily, in Bangkok. I have been quite naughty in not listing prices and links and all the paraphernalia that someone more diligent would include. When I was younger, I used to hear that with age comes wisdom. Now I am old, I realize that a gentle laziness is more my kind of thing.
Blue moons over Nusara.
留言