It’s a strange thing for a journalist to say. But I am going to say it anyway: Don’t believe everything you read in the newspapers.
Last week, we were booked to go to Bangkok to attend the World Gourmet Festival, an annual event organised by the Anantara hotel group at the iconic Anantara Siam Hotel. The event always features top chefs from around the world, often with four-hand collaborations and opportunities to talk to the chefs. This had its drawbacks. The star of the festival was the great Julien Royer, whose brilliant Odette restaurant in Singapore has three Michelin stars. I had planned to take my wife to his dinner at the festival for her birthday, but such was the demand for Julien’s food that we could not get a table. We went instead to one of Chalee Kader’s restaurants. It was the right choice. Chalee compares Soma to The Bombay Canteen, but it is a little quieter and slightly more formal, while retaining the air of a neighbourhood restaurant. The food is excellent and Chalee gives all the credit to his kitchen team, hiding at the back when I took a group photo.
Chalee was cooking at the festival, but I wanted to try one of his own new restaurants: Soma, rather than Wana Yook, his Michelin-starred place or his now globally famous 100 Mahaseth. Because my flight from Delhi was full and the Anantara Siam was packed out for the Gourmet Festival, obviously, most people had not been dissuaded by the gloom and doom reporting of the Western press,.
Having missed Julien, we were determined not to miss Dave Pynt of Burnt Ends. Dave’s food is one of a kind. He trained at the iconic Asador Etxebarri and understands the Australian barbecue tradition. But there is much more range in his food than say, in the cuisine of Lennox Hastie, another famous Australian chef with a similar background. Dave does fire food (his Blackmore strip loin was historic) but manages to make the most complex dishes seem simple and inviting.
He was at the World Gourmet Festival last year too and is now entirely at home in the Anantara kitchen.
