Fah Thai Magazine March/April 2018 - Infight Magazine of Bangkok Airways

CHUDAREE DEBHAKAM
creativity play a part when you
want to create a menu. However,
you can’t throw whole ingredients
into a pot all at once to make a good
stock. You need to think scientifically
when you start cooking up relevant
flavour and body.”
Top Chef showed Chudaree’s
imaginative concepts, with liberal
views when it comes to cooking.
In the final episode of Top Chef
Thailand, she duelled with female
chef Phattanant Thongthong
using everyday ingredients. She
added a sizable piece of blood
curd into her fish soup. The
blood curd was a mistake and
considered by judges to be an odd
pairing of proteins. Nevertheless,
it (Top Chef Thailand) indicated
that she is a big fan of underdog
ingredients and the unsung hero
too – and bold when it comes
to pushing an ordinary and
overlooked ingredient and giving
it a new culinary perspective.
So for the main course, she
made “Beef Two Ways,” of beef
belly and lengua – beef tongue.
“Beef belly is an undercut piece
from over the belly of the cow. It’s
cheap, tough and chewy,” noted
chef Suphamongkol Suphaphiphat,
one of the judges who commented
on chef Tam’s dish. “If you can
make it tender, you’re awarded
with big fat flavour. Chef Tam
did well with her beef belly,” the
judge concluded.
Nevertheless, it (Top Chef Thailand) indicated that she
is a big fan of underdog ingredients and the unsung hero
too – and bold when it comes to pushing an ordinary
and overlooked ingredient and giving it a new culinary
perspective.
Top
Scarlett Wine Bar
and Restaurant,
Pullman Bangkok
Hotel
Below
Chicken Liver
Mousse with spiced
Tamarind and
Grilled Sourdough
is presented
by Chudaree
Debhakam.
She battled against professional
chefs and stayed on top with cheap,
but not cheap - looking ingredients
like “ma kwaen,” a type of black
rice with a wild pepper with tangy
end taste, “pony fish,” the “katuk
plant,” phak waan in Thai and
“bai bua bok (pennywort)” –
among some of the affordablypriced
ingredients.
“I don’t need fancy ingredients
to cook up fancy food,” she added.
“Local and seasonal ingredients are
the best, and the rest is all about the
cooking technique.”
At the International Culinary
Center, Chudaree, along with her
classmates were trained on classic
French cuisine techniques with a
farm-to-table concept that sourced
ingredients from nearby producers.
She immersed in traditional cooking
techniques and discovered the strong
ties between agriculture and cuisine.
“We travelled a lot to farms, got
exposure to farmer’s markets and
talked to local producers and
butchers working on the quality of
ingredients and flavours. There is a
season for everything.”
This chef listens to culinary
wisdom to take her cooking to new
heights. “For the best in taste, I
only buy available ingredients that
are in season and hopefully grown
in local areas,” confirms Chudaree.
Her tasting menus served on the
reality TV show held much promise
and the audience got to hear about
the ideas and stories behind her
dishes. But are those meals that she
prepared what she actually makes
for herself, we wonder?
“No, I don’t cook such meals for
myself,” she affirmed. “At the end of
the day, after a long hour of cooking
in a kitchen, I will go for nothing
fancy – just something simple. A
bowl of rice topped with “phad ka
phrao moo” (spicy stir-fried pork
with holy basil leaves) and a fried
egg will do.”
Meanwhile, Chudaree continues
travelling around Thailand in search
for inspiration and exposure to local
taste and flavour, including common
ingredients with bold characteristics.
With cooking techniques – classic
and modern (and even avant-garde),
she wants to take a local ingredient
to a new taste perspective.
Now at Scarlett Wine Bar and
Restaurant, at the Pullman Bangkok
Hotel, our Top Chef Thailand winner
offered Fah Thai magazine two
tasting menus – an entrée of
“Chicken Liver Mousse with Spiced
Tamarind and Grilled Sourdough”
and “Grilled Tiger Prawns with
Charred Romesco,” complete with
grilled greens and a prawn reduction
as a main course.
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