Thais Bristle At Australian’S Take On Thai Cuisine

[lomatopo]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/25/world/asia/25chef.html

excerpt

By THOMAS FULLER

Published: September 23, 2010

BANGKOK — It’s been a rough year for Thailand. First there were the images of deadly street battles between soldiers and protesters beamed around the world. Then people living in neighboring dictatorships snickered that Thailand was a democracy in decline. Foreign tourists wondered whether it was safe to travel here.

And now this: An Australian chef has the audacity to declare that he is on a mission to revive Thai cuisine.

David Thompson, who earned a Michelin star for his cooking at Nahm, a Thai restaurant in London, opened a branch of the acclaimed restaurant in Bangkok this month.

Mr. Thompson says that Thai cooking is “decaying” and has less complexity and variation than it once did. “I’m striving for authenticity, that’s my primary goal,” he said in an interview.

In the long and mostly friendly history of relations between Thailand and the West, Thais have welcomed outsiders into their boardrooms, classrooms and bedrooms. But the kitchen is another matter.

Suthon Sukphisit, a food writer for Thai newspapers and an authority on Thai cuisine, reacts to Mr. Thompson’s stated mission as if he had just bitten into an exceptionally hot chili pepper.

“He is slapping the faces of Thai people!” Mr. Suthon said in an interview. “If you start telling Thais how to cook real Thai food, that’s unacceptable.”

Mr. Suthon has not eaten at Nahm — “I’m not going to,” he said.

[PhilHarries]

The audacity of it, Jonny foreigner daring to suggest that anything associated with Thailand is less than perfect just will not do!

The fact that he just might have a point is irrelevant. He must be shouted down and ridiculed for having such impure thoughts.

[Michaelaway]

IMO, the chef has decided to market himself and his restaurant by making foolish statements. Understandable ire...

[harrry]

He may have a point. Even in the street food has been simplified to save time compared to that of 40 years ago. Time is something that is not available to working families and here as in the west has led to simpler food...sometimes better for it but generally a loss.

[onnut]

Where is his restaurant?

I don't think he has said he can cook better Thai food than the Thais. He just wants to bring back the traditional way of doing it. I doubt any Thai chefs out there have thought of doing it.

Now they hear this, they will all jump on the bandwagon.

[chiliwasabi]

He may have a bit of work getting a Thai audience on side but I find it refreshing to see David on TV in Australia cooking real Thai food rather than a dumbed down westernised version.

[tutsiwarrior]

the dude wasn't speaking to Mr Somchai he was speaking to falang diners in restaurants in other countries who get shit in the name of thai cuisine...

me and the thai missus after a meal in the best thai restaurant in Abu Dhabi and on our way home: 'How was the food, darling?'...very quietly she replied: 'chinese food...'

Somchai and his absurd culinary nationalism get fcuked...

[PEP]

Any good Aussie cook who can make a Damper and put another Prawn on the Barbie has no fear of producing good Thai Tucker. Most of it is "Same old-Same old"

[xen]

David Thompson claims his style of Thai Food is derived from the "Royal " school - The type of cookery for the traditional upperclasses and royalty . There are not many other people who are in the same field.

[TheWalkingMan]

Has anyone on the forum been to Nahm Restaurant? I think that many people would be interested in a review.

Also, has anyone compared an old recipe from years ago to a recipe for a similar dish today? That would let us all know the differences.

Or does anyone have a recipe for a Royal Thai dish compared to the same dish of non-Royal Thai.

Happy eating!

TheWalkingMan

[theseahorse]

Has anyone on the forum been to Nahm Restaurant? I think that many people would be interested in a review.

Also, has anyone compared an old recipe from years ago to a recipe for a similar dish today? That would let us all know the differences.

Or does anyone have a recipe for a Royal Thai dish compared to the same dish of non-Royal Thai.

Happy eating!

TheWalkingMan

You can't really compare Royal Thai dishes against standard Thai cuisine like that, they're completely different dishes.

I've eaten at the original Nahm in London many times in the past and have always had a very good meal. It is by far the best and most authentic Thai food I've had out of Thailand. But just like all the western restaurants here in Bangkok aren't quite the same as back in the west, and even the La Normandie's and the other top restaurants don't quite get it 100%, I feel that Nahm was the same and I'm sure it's due to being on the wrong side of the world, Nahm was 99% there, but not 100%. I've felt the same in all of the top western restaurants I've eaten in in Asia. But I'm off to eat at Bangkok's Nahm later in the week and I'm looking forward to seeing what it's like here.

When journalists like Suthon Sukphisit publicly critsize someone without having even tried they're food it shows more about them as a jounalist than the food they're talking about. I guess he just got excited about the NY Times calling him up. As for his comment about no Farangs can eat spicy foods, again this shows he's level of thinking.

The main thing I'm wondering is if there's a Thai chef and food writer who has studied their own cuisine anywhere near the extent that David Thompson has? Lots of people like to complain about David Thompson but if he can't be an expert on Thai food just because he's a farang, then who is? No Thai chef/ writer has ever published anything close to 'Thai Food' by David Thompson, definatly not in English and anything written in Thai with that much information would have been snapped up by a publisher to translate into English and sell to the western market immediatly.

[sabaijai]

I've eaten at the new Nahm at The Met here in Bkk. I went with a Thai friend who I consider an authority on Thai cooking, having been the owner/chef of four quality restaurants serving traditional, authentic Thai food. Coincidentally highly regarded chef Ian Kittichai was also at Nahm that night, as was Michel Gignor, a culinary personality from NY who is a presenter on the TV series Runaway Chef.

We all though the food was excellent in every respect. I was previously sceptical, but have to admit, the kitchen knows what they're doing. It's not for nothing that Thomson's London Nahm holds a Michelin star.

I spoke with Thompson briefly, and I don't think he is inspired by 'royal cuisine,' which is more of a marketing term than a reality. Has he made a statement to that effect? Basically he's just trying to present Thai dishes in thee best possible way, ie, using the finest available ingredients and sparing no labour in preparation.

I don't think Suthon really understands why foreign chefs have ventured into the cuisine at this level. It's not simply that Thais are not doing a good job preserving the cuisine. I think that's only a small factor, relatively speaking. The main reason, I think, is that Thais don't have a tradition of haute cuisine (so-called 'royal cuisine' or aahaan chao wang is a half-baked attempt), and hence even Western-educated Thais have not dreamt of seriously applying the concept to their own cuisine. Like Rick Bayless and Diane Kennedy did for Mexican cuisine 30-40 years ago, David Thompson has dared to take Thai cooking to that level.

Mexico has showered Kennedy with a dozen awards for her efforts to upgrade and glorify Mexican cooking for the world. Suthon and other critics haven't addressed the basic challenge their critique suggests, which is: Why can't a foreign chef dedicated to Thai cuisine make good Thai food? It seems they are confusing ethnicity with authenticity.

Social critic Santisuda Ekachai has responded to the NY Times article in today's issue of the Post, suggesting that trying to prevent foreigners from dabbling in Thai cuisine is a disservice to both the cuisine and national pride.

It's akin to the furor that arose in 1976 when an American wine beat French wines in a Parisian tasting. The French moaned and moaned about how the American wines didn't have the right balance and complexity, etc. A wine that's drinkable the same year it's released? Sacrilege! Yet today you have wineries in France gladly seeking Robert Parker's New World approval. The idea that the French wine market might be influenced by a non-French critic is an idea that would have been unthinkable at one time.

[DP25]

The only thing 99% of Thais will bristle at are the prices

[roamer]

Considering that David Thompson has made a crusade of recording for posterity the methods of creating some traditional Thai dishes that have more or less vanished in this homogeneous age, I consider this criticism to be just the usual Thai jingoistic rubbish. Its not just politicians that come up with this half-baked nationalistic crap, food writers do it too.

[hijiji]

"Mr. Thompson has a set menu for 1,500 baht,"

there's alot you could do with thai food for that much, but when your selling food for less than 100 baht to make a profit it's less real ingredients add some msg, sugar and a load of chilli.