S.E.Asia Kitchen & Bar at Shangri-La Hotel, Guangzhou will kick off its first food festival in 2017 with guest Chef Yanavit from Shangri-La Hotel, Bangkok from 3 to 31 March 2017. Born and raised in Thailand, Chef Yanavit will bring with him a menu of classic and refined Thai dishes that pleases the palate of everyone from the royal family to civilians.
In pursuit of culinary perfection in Thai cuisine for many years, Chef Yanavit seems to have a special attachment with the royal family of Thailand. He first dreamed of becoming a chef when he saw photos of King Rama IV cooking. He then worked as an apprentice of Chef Charlie Amatyakul, a chef known to every household in Thailand and whose family enjoyed the honour being the royal chef.
Later in his culinary career, Chef Yanavit had his opportunity to cook for Thai HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who is recognised as a passionate ambassador for the friendship between Thailand and China. Her Royal Highness was impressed by the chef’s own creation of steamed bowl of river prawns in Thai style and asked for his secret recipe. In return, the princess shared her family’s recipes by giving the chef a royal cookbook. In 2007, Chef Yanavit was again honoured to cook for the youngest Thai princess of King Rama IX, HRH Princess Chulabhorn Walailak.
For Chef Yanavit, cooking for two Thai princesses is no doubt the highlights in his culinary career. However, he was more impressed by the royals’ humble personality and generous sharing of their family tradition, which strengthened his commitment to promoting Thailand through his expertise.
In his own field, the chef’s passion lies in how he can bring out the best of the most common food associated with the Thai people’s daily lives, urban or countryside, and rooted in every Thai’s heart, from the royal family to civilians.
This March, he will depict his fond memory of Thai food in S.E.Asia Kitchen & Bar at Shangri-La Hotel, Guangzhou. With a hint of lemongrass and basil, Chef Yanavit’s authentic Thai menu will sweeten up the city’s spring breeze.
The first signature dish Chef Yanavit would like to introduce in this Thai Food Festival in honour of HRH Princess Sirindhorn’s generosity is Mieang Ka-Nar Pla Tub Tim (Deep-Fried Fish with Coconut Shrimp Sauce). The sauce, which is rich in coconut and shrimp flavour, is literally from the royal recipe.
The second signature dish on the chef’s menu is Tom Yam Kung, the perfect centrepiece for a Thai meal. This soup’s refreshing aroma derives from a mixture of fresh ingredients, such as lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and galangal, while its dynamic flavour of heat, saltiness, sourness and a hint of sweetness comes from crushed chili peppers, fish sauce and lime juice.
The chef’s personal preference for this soup is to add a generous splash of coconut milk to give it a creamier texture and sweetness. He revealed that this style of Tom Yam Kung was one of the favourite dishes the Thai princesses enjoyed when he cooked for them.
Another dish in the chef’s menu is Isaan Tiffin, which includes Green Papaya Salad, Sticky Rice and Grilled Chicken. It is served in a four-layer enamel lunch box, a nostalgic food container which probably appeared at a certain stage of most school kids in the 1990s. While ‘tiffin’ suggests a sharing culture among school kids during lunch time, the food represents north-eastern Thai food as a rustic, robust cuisine of grilled meats and incendiary sauces served with Laotian-Style Sticky Rice.
Among these three elements, Green Papaya Salad is wildly popular all over Thailand and probably most commonly known to Cantonese customers. It is called Som Tum in the Thai language. The name itself speaks for its unmistakable character, that is, the flavour and the action involved in its making. Tum means “to pound with a mortar and pestle” and Som means sour. For Chef Yanavit, the key to Som Tum is in the chorus of chillies, fish sauce, garlic and lime in creating a well-balanced combination of heat, saltiness and acidity. While green papaya has little flavour, the pounding action helps infuse complexity into the fruit’s crunchy texture.
As Chef Yanavit puts it, the key to understanding Thai food can be summed up in one word: balance. Thai dishes strive for a perfect balance of hot, sweet, sour and salty flavours, each one punchy without overpowering the others. Using fresh and seasonal ingredients is the only way to achieve this.
For Chef Yanavit, food should never be treated lightly – rich stock must be bubbled and simmered patiently for hours while spices are pounded vigorously by hand, over and over, to draw out their best flavours. With the chef’s passion in promoting Thailand, there is a lot more to expect in this Thai Food Festival than the food itself.
The concept of S.E.Asia Kitchen & Bar is to bring the most authentic Thai food from South East Asian countries to the local diners using quality ingredients served in a relaxing and comfortable ambience. A line-up of visiting guest chefs from sister properties in the region will keep things interesting as they introduce not only the food, but also the culture embedded in the flavour and presentation. The warm atmosphere encourages family and friendly gatherings, as in the restaurant’s core pillar of sharing philosophy.
