While our palates experience a delightfully quirky
party of flavour bombs, a seasonally timely sound-
and-light show illuminates the night sky, and in true
Thai style, fireworks pop as lightning strikes flash.
Admiring (and enjoying) the edible art is made all
the more memorable after our intimate Pru Jampa
tour the day before.
Initially established to propagate the resort’s 3,000
native plants to sustain the jungle, PRU’s organic farm
now sprawls over 96 hectares. Countless varieties
of eggplants (from thimble size to enormous) and
carrots, plus dozens of free-range chickens and ducks
are nurtured at the farm before being used in the
restaurant’s dishes.
And the sustainability principles that start at the farm
don’t stop when they reach the table. They ring through
everything at Trisara, including in the kitchens where
scraps are turned into compost and used to grow more
produce, completing the circle. The farm-to-table
concept is rare in Thailand, making PRU a pioneer here.
While Trisara means ‘third garden in heaven’ in
Sanskrit, the resort’s exceptional culinary offering puts
it on the gourmet food map right here on Earth.
A short stroll from PRU, past water lily filled pools
and glistening waterfalls, leads us to The Deck. We are“He’s like a great painter before he does his first
painting for the Pope; we just didn’t know his talent.
He’s a creative artist and a farmer who executes those
passions as art on a plate.”
The elegant restaurant is incredibly exclusive,
seating just 16 people each evening – and we are
among them. Smiling faces of cordial staff greet us
by name (without any introduction) the moment we step
inside the intimate, yet spacious, candlelit room.
With very little information available, the six-course
signature menu with wine pairing is intriguing. Luckily,
we’re wearing our finest loose-fitting outfits because it
quickly turns into 12-courses – compliments of the chef.
Chef Ophorst’s famous creation, a carrot slow-
cooked for eight-hours in the soil in which it grew; aged
Pru Jampa farm duck with shiitake; river prawn served
in a delicate portion of XO sauce beside a bed of lotus
stems harvested from the same river as the crustacean;
black crab from the mangroves in Phang-Nga married
unexpectedly with rich Phuket coffee. Every plate
gracing the table is delicate, bursting with earthy yet
sensational – and at times, unexpected – flavours.
Allowing every shining ingredient to tell a unique
story, Chef Ophorst creates European-inspired meals
that are as simple as they are visionary.
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