One is Khun Piti ‘Todd’ Bhirom Bhakdi, scion of Boon Rawd
Brewery, the family-owned company behind Singha Beer. The
other is chef Chumpol Jangprai, a veteran in the industry who
starred in the Thai version of Iron Chef. Both men have one thing
in common—the desire to bring authentic Thai food to the world.
Enter R-HAAN, a fine-dining restaurant serving authentic Thai
cuisine they started about a year ago.
Says Khun Piti, whose portfolios include helming Food
Factors, the food business arm of Boon Rawd Brewery, “Cooking
is a great hobby of mine. When I was a kid, I started cooking with
my grandma who’s very traditional. We ate Thai food everyday;
I can say it’s in my blood. When I studied in Boston, I had Thai
food that was most often not Thai. Since then, I had a dream
to serve proper Thai food with the best ingredients in the best
atmosphere.”
From its location in Bangkok’s swanky Thanglor
neighbourhood, R-HAAN does just that, with multi-course samrub
or sharing plate tasting menus that change with the summer,
winter and rainy seasons. What stays the same is their 100 per
cent use of Thai produce and ingredients. Says chef Chumpol,
“With local ingredients, we try to use every wisdom of traditional
Thai cooking techniques. Yet we’re ready to develop and
modernise as well. The complexity in taste and flavour has to be
like a symphony—not too low, not too high. When the meal come
together, every element should have its place.”
ROYAL THAI CUISINE
R-HAAN’s well-composed cuisine has a name—royal Thai
cuisine. While chef Chumpol’s long career with royal Thai cuisine
restaurant Blue Elephant honed his expertise, his knowledge of
authentic Thai dishes goes much further back than that. Since
he was six years old, he was constantly hovering around the
kitchen of his mum and grandmother’s restaurant, Sanguan Sri
on Witthayu Road. He watched as they painstakingly prepared
homely Thai dishes that were brought to the palace every day for
the Queen and other members of royalty to enjoy. The fact that
Khun Piti’s grandmother enjoyed Sanguan Sri’s cuisine brought
the two men’s visions for R-HAAN even closer together.
But to the uninitiated, what exactly qualifies as royal Thai
cuisine? First, attention to detail. Says chef Chumpol, “Royal
Thai cuisine is genius cuisine. The taste can be mild, medium
or strong, but the detailed preparation involved makes it royal
cuisine. At R-HAAN, we use the detailed approach of royal
cuisine and techniques of ancient cuisine passed down for
generations to deliver the taste of local cuisine, which is more
bold-flavoured.” Chef Chumpol adds that people often have
the misperception that royal cuisine simply implies a beautiful
setting and elegant plating. But it’s really not so much what’s
outside that counts, but the inside. Royal Thai cuisine, is in fact,
farm-to-table cuisine.FARM-TO-TABLE
Chef Chumpol’s involvement in food tourism projects such as
the Royal Agricultural Project in Chiang Mai gives him ample
opportunity to scour the country for precious ingredients
that are best in season, such as young coconut shell from
Ban Ta Khian Tia, Chon Buri province; cardamom shoots
from Chantaburi province; and fermented pineapple from
Ubonratchathani province. All these he uses judiciously in each
of his samrub tasting menus featuring at least 18 different
items.
The Royal Thai Taste samrub (2912THB) and the Amazing
Thai Taste samrub (2512 THB) summer menus, for instance,
feature dishes starring several regionally-sourced premium
ingredients, such as Sing Buri triple cooked sundried river
fish mixed with sugar and deep fried shallot served with
watermelon and three flavours caviar; stir-fried asparagus
from Don Tum, Nakhon Pathom province with ‘Tak Bai’ salted
threadfin fish; and wagyu beef charcoal-grilled with ancient Thai
copper pod curry ‘Kaeng Khe Lhek’. In the rainy season menus
coming up in the second half of the year, chef Chumpol plans
to use even more Thai herbs in the dishes, noting that they can
help diners fight coughs and colds that are prevalent during the
rainy season. He will focus even more intensely on health and
wellness themes in future menus too, given the many health
and medicinal properties that many Thai ingredients possess.
Chef Chumpol sums it up simply, “if you understand nature,
you understand Thai cuisine.” Respecting the seasons and all
that nature’s bounty has to offer is the only rule that the kitchen
applies to every detail on the plate.ROYAL THAI CUISINE
Michelin-starred R-HAAN and its farm-to-table philosophy