With the crowning of Le Du in first place by Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2023, Thailand’s capital has truly shed its cheap and cheerful image when it comes to food. We take a look at how Bangkok transformed itself into a top destination for haute cuisine
Bangkok has long been renowned for its street food. But increasingly, gourmets are turning their attention to its high-end restaurants, helped by the likes of the Michelin guide and Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants awards. Leading the charge is a clutch of innovative, independent venues helmed by overseas-trained local chefs who are redefining what constitutes Thai food, elevating it to fine-dining status in the process.
One of the newest arrivals is Potong, a glamorous paean to the mixed Thai Chinese heritage of its founder Pichaya Utharntharm and the humming Chinatown district in which her forebears settled. Better known as Chef Pam, she conceived the idea for Potong after visiting the landmark 120-year-old Sino-Portuguese shophouse which now houses the restaurant with her father and grandfather; the building has belonged to four generations of their family, and they resumed possession of it after leasing it out commercially.
Nearly three years of painstaking, Covid-impacted renovations ensued, with restored period details juxtaposed against sleek additions. Five distinct zones offer guests a sensory journey that includes bars, the main dining room, private spaces and an alfresco rooftop. When the restaurant finally opened in 2021, it received rave reviews, earning a Michelin star in its first year of operation; it is currently booked out three months in advance.
Utharntharm says she has been cooking since she was a child, “for as long as I remember, taught by my perfectionist mother”. After obtaining a degree in communication and arts, she enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and “knew at that moment that I was born to cook”. A three-year stint at then three-Michelin-starred Jean-Georges in New York followed, an experience that she credits for her ability to marry French technique with Asian ingredients and flavours.
The idea to create progressive Thai Chinese food is her own, however. Inspired by the intertwining of her family’s stories with the shophouse’s past as a former traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy, Utharntharm creates culinary alchemy that honours both. “I have learnt so much from cooking traditional Thai Chinese food since I was young, and always respect these methods but at the same time use my culinary knowledge to create something that is a mix of old and new,” she says. “I always learn the traditional ways before applying modern touches.”
Diners at Potong are treated to a themed 20-course tasting menu that changes quarterly but always reflects Utharntharm’s philosophy of combining the five human senses with the five elements of taste. This might include egg noodles with grated shrimp yolk, Chinese morel and caviar, or 14-day aged five-spiced duck. The only constant is a signature of mud crab roe, black pepper jam, crab butter bread and blue crab meat.
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A desire to honour heritage was also instrumental in the opening of Thitid “Ton” Tassanakajohn’s new ten-seat restaurant Nusara, named after his grandmother, who the acclaimed chef says instilled in him the love of food from an early age. Nusara complements Le Du, his first restaurant, which was at the vanguard of contemporary Thai cuisine when it opened a decade ago and remains a flagbearer today.
While Michelin-starred Le Du is “my playground and passion”, with original food that looks European but tastes Thai—think river prawns and mountain rice served risotto-style—Nusara goes back to his roots. “It’s more mature, traditional and playful at the same time, and something I want people to remember my grandma through,” he says. Dishes look familiar but are served as small courses inspired by Japanese kaiseki presentation. Many are drawn from royal recipes, with a bite-sized southern crab curry served on crispy betel leaf encapsulating Nusara’s philosophy.
Tassanakajohn’s food is complex and intense yet balanced, without extremes of flavour. “People sometimes misunderstand that our cuisine has to be very spicy or it’s not authentic, which is not the case,” he says.
Both of Tassanakajohn’s restaurants showcase his skill and technique acquired from working at some of New York’s top restaurants, including Eleven Madison Park, The Modern and Jean-Georges, as well his knowledge of the Thai food he grew up with. In March, Le Du was named the best restaurant in Asia while Nusara followed in third place at the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2023 ceremony; it’s the ultimate recognition of the chef’s efforts to “take Thai food to the next level, and make it as beautiful and modern as French or Japanese cuisine, while keeping the integrity of its flavours”.