Aussie Starts A Thailand Food War

[PattayaOneTeam]

Introducing Tharang Food

By S. Tsow

David Thompson is an Australian chef who runs a Michelin award-winning Thai restaurant in London. Recently he caused a dust-up in Thailand by opening a new branch in Bangkok and announcing that he had come to save Thai cooking from “decaying.”

This was written up in the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, and stirred up a furor among Thai foodies. “He is slapping the faces of Thai people!” exclaimed one Thai food authority. “It’s like Osama bin Laden going to the Vatican and saying he is a high authority on Catholicism,” grumbled another.

Thompson has done a great deal of research into traditional Thai food, is extremely well-qualified, and is dedicated to creating dishes that are as authentically Thai as possible. His restaurants have received a great deal of praise. But he’s missing a few things that show he’s just a tad out of sync with the way things work in Thailand.

Thais like humility. When a foreigner comes barging in and boasts that he’s the Messiah who has come to rescue Thai cooking from perdition, they get understandably ruffled. Hey, it’s their food. Who is this foreigner to stick his large nose in and tell them how to cook it?

Thompson may actually be a very modest person, but his announcement that he has come to save Thai food from “decaying” sounds arrogant. It’s the appearance of arrogance that turns the Thais off. A little bowing and scraping would have won many hearts and minds. He might have said, “I am just a poor, ignorant farang who, like many of my kind, is deeply in love with Thailand. I am struggling to master the incredibly complex and beautiful intricacies of Thai cooking, which I respect, revere, and venerate to the point of adoration; and I humbly hope that my sincere but pitifully inadequate efforts may find acceptance among the Thai people, who are justly famed for their graciousness, magnanimity, and compassion toward unworthy foreigners like myself.” That would have brought the entire nation to its feet in wild applause.

He could have taken his cue from a former Miss Thailand and Miss Universe, Porntip Nakhirunkanok, who was born in Bangkok but grew up in Los Angeles. Some Thais complained that she spoke Thai poorly and, because of her foreign upbringing, wasn’t really Thai. Porntip artfully defused the criticism by saying something like this: “Oh, I know I was brought up in Los Angeles and speak Thai poorly. But I am struggling to improve my command of the language, I love Thailand and the Thai people, and I feel Thai in my heart.”

It was that last phrase that won people over, and she was joyfully welcomed to the warm and capacious bosom of the Thai people. In fact, she was the toast of the nation right up to the very end of her reign as Miss Universe 1988. At that point, she made a fatal mistake. She revealed that she had a farang boyfriend.

From that moment on, her stock plunged to zero. The Thais might have forgiven her for hiding a secret boyfriend all year long if he had been Thai. But a farang boyfriend? No way. They perceived her as deceitful and unpatriotic, and they dropped her like a hot potato. The Thais are a generous and good-hearted people who are easily charmed by a beautiful appearance and a slick line of patter: but once they find out you’ve tricked them, you’re dead. And justly so.

Thompson has visited Thailand often, speaks and reads Thai, has a Thai boyfriend, and affectionately refers to his relocation to Bangkok as “coming home,” so you’d think he’d know the score. But his posh Bangkok restaurant charges 1,500 baht for a set menu. How many Thais are going to pay that much for a meal? Especially when they can get something very similar right out on the sidewalk for a fraction of the price.

But maybe I’m the one who’s missing something. One of the things that motivates affluent, hi-so Thais—the high fliers, the movers and the shakers, the folks who used to light their cigars with 1000-baht notes—is the prospect of gaining great prestige, also known as “big face.” If Thompson can promote his restaurant as the only Thai restaurant in town with a farang chef (assuming that’s true), that might be a novelty sufficient to draw in curious customers with fat wallets. Maybe. But I wouldn’t bet the ricefield on it. People might also decide to boycott the joint as an act of patriotism. Time will tell.

The whole issue highlights a larger problem that affects Thai restaurants in the West. Thai food tends to be highly spiced. Westerners generally don’t like spicy food. Should a Thai restaurant in London or New York serve authentically spiced Thai food and watch the customers stay away in droves? Or should they serve a spiceless version that will pull the customers in?

The customer is always right, the majority rules, and survival is the first law of nature, so obviously Thai restaurants in the West have to leave out the spices. Spiceless Thai food cannot really claim to be Thai, but we can easily solve that problem merely by changing the name.

When the British took curry from India and adapted it to create a version more acceptable to their palates, they called it English curry. Since the Thai food served in the West is a combination of Thai and farang food, why not call it Tharang food? You could call it Thai-European, or Thai-American, or Thai-Australian, or even just Thai-style—but “Tharang” is non-hyphenated and more concise. It not only makes a good name for Westernized Thai food, it would even make a good name for a restaurant. Or a rock band.

.....................

Thai food lover S. Tsow can be flamed at [email protected], except when he’s trying to put together a rock band called “Tharang.”

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-- Pattaya One 2010-10-25

[softgeorge]

I think the author of the above editorial has taken him completely out of context.

"Thompson may actually be a very modest person, but his announcement that he has come to save Thai food from “decaying” sounds arrogant. It’s the appearance of arrogance that turns the Thais off. A little bowing and scraping would have won many hearts and minds. He might have said, “I am just a poor, ignorant farang who, like many of my kind, is deeply in love with Thailand. I am struggling to master the incredibly complex and beautiful intricacies of Thai cooking, which I respect, revere, and venerate to the point of adoration; and I humbly hope that my sincere but pitifully inadequate efforts may find acceptance among the Thai people, who are justly famed for their graciousness, magnanimity, and compassion toward unworthy foreigners like myself.” That would have brought the entire nation to its feet in wild applause."

Mr Thompson was refering to the way Thai food is altered to cater for FARANG taste and he is not talking about the way in which Thai's prepare traditional food for Thai's. He has the upmost respect for Thailand, it's people and the food.

Watch this link and hear it as it was said.

[Chang_paarp]

I saw an interview with Thompson on Aussie TV. His restaurant cuisine is the high end stuff of the palace not that of the street vendor. The reference to the cuisine decaying was him decrying the lack of Thai restraunts offering this high end style of cuisine with the resulting loss of the knowledge as a result. Many Thais usually go for a quick easy meal on a street corner which is very much the preference of Thais, and many restaurants copy this style. His is a cuisine based on the seasonal foods rather than the fixed menu of the vendor.

Thompson is acknowledged as an authority on Thai cuisine and is a masterfull chef, his restaurant in London is the only Thai restaurant in the world with a Michelin star, and his book on Thai food covers street food extensively as well as the other styles of Thai food. This "controversy" is just another case of the Thais getting too precious about a foreigner learning about their culture.

[highchol]

wait till his work permit is up for renewal!

[backfromouterspace]

Sounds like the article was written by a TEFLer who things that 1500 baht/head is an astronomical sum to pay for a good meal and outside the reach of Thais.

There's a whole world of great places where Thais with money eat just waiting to be discovered.

[MrJohnson]

Sounds like the article was written by a TEFLer who things that 1500 baht/head is an astronomical sum to pay for a good meal and outside the reach of Thais.

There's a whole world of great places where Thais with money eat just waiting to be discovered.

OMG - B1500 - not many Thais can afford that...Yes,old STOW does sound like a bit of a cheapskate doesn't he/she

Plenty of Thais would spend 3 times that on a bottle of wine to have with dinner. David Thompson has done a great deal to 'enhance' the image of refined, fine-dining Thai style. It started out with Darley St. Thai in Sydney in the late '80s I think it was. That restaurant was a revelation and was soon followed by the equally good, if slightly different, Sailor's Thai. I think history will show him in the same light as Jim Thompson, no relation, who helped 'save' the Thai silk industry.

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