The star chefs shine bright at Four Seasons, Bangkok
In the last 10 to 15 years, more and more people have shown interest in gourmet cuisine, enough to join food and wine organizations. They would like to call themselves gourmets, which the dictionary defines as “someone who is a connoisseur of good cooking and is knowledgeable and discriminating about the niceties of food preparation and serving. The word suggests a taste for elegance and a concern for all aspects of the ritual of dining including the selection of foods and wines that are thought to harmonize with each other.” A gourmand, however, “suggests someone for whom the eating of food itself is the primary interest. Although the gourmand appreciates good cooking, he judges this more by its taste than by the canon of rules and regulations with which the gourmet may be familiar.”
So, are you a gourmet or a gourmand or half and half?
The interest in food has led many TV stations to come up with cooking shows with chefs as stars. It also stirred an awareness in individuals who have interest in the culinary field but were not sure their parents would approve of their choice of profession.
In developing countries, chefs were called cooks, (in our country, kusineros) and were not really paid well. Nowadays, being a chef is a big deal. Outstanding chefs are recruited by top hotels and restaurants all over the world and are highly paid.
Recently, Four Seasons Bangkok culminated its 9th World Gourmet Festival, a weeklong gastronomic odyssey. The event showcased a sizzling selection of award-winning international chefs, delicious food, wine tasting and cooking demonstrations plus the world’s finest culinary purveyors. Since its inception nine years ago, the World Gourmet Festival has grown in prominence to feature an extraordinary lineup of some of the world’s best chefs from all continents. Several food festivals are hosted throughout the world, but Four Seasons Bangkok is the only hotel to bring award-winning master chefs under one roof for a week-long celebration of outstanding food and wine.
It was just my good luck that I was in Bangkok with good friend Jojo Zabarte during the festival. Our friend Annabelle Daokaew, Four Seasons’ lovely Filipino PR lady, made sure that I could interview some of the chefs. Having a sweet tooth, I wanted to interview the only pastry chef of the bunch, Michael Laiskonis, executive pastry chef of Le Bernardin New York.
Chef Laiskonis was awarded the Outstanding Pastry Chef of 2007 by the James Beard Foundation. He is known for his signature desserts that gracefully layer textures and flavors. What is interesting is this chef never went to a culinary school. He discovered his passion for pastries while working at a bakery. He experimented and immersed himself in bread and pastry making and soon became pastry chef at Emily, then at Tribute. He was named twice as one of 10 Best Pastry Chefs in America. Moving to Le Bernardin, one of the lauded restaurants in New York, Chef Laiskonis now has the perfect venue to express his ideas through his unique desserts.
Another interesting chef was the only lady in the group, Celina Tio who is part-Filipino. She has received many awards in her young life, the two biggest being Chef of the Year in 2005 by Chef magazine and in 2007, Best Chef: Midwest. She is at present the top chef at Julia (n), North Carolina. We enjoyed her meal the most. She had a dish that tasted like lechon de leche. It was perfectly flavored and was so tender and juicy!
Jeffrey Jake, the chef of The Carneros Inn, Napa Valley California, has a Filipino stepfather and loves Filipino cuisine. He began his career as sous chef at the Domaine Chandon. He has also served as chef de cuisine at the Pebble Beach, Sonoma Mission Inn which garnered 3 stars from the San Francisco Chronicle and Gourmet magazine’s Top Ten Wine Country Restaurants. He has led cooking courses at the Culinary Center of Monterrey and taught California cuisine in Japan.
One of the chefs whose cuisine I wanted to sample but was not lucky enough was Michael Ginor whose restaurant, Hudson Valley Foie Gras, New York, USA received the Five Star Diamond Award from the American Academy of Hospitality and Sciences in 1996 and the Award of Excellence from the American Tasting Institute in 1998. This is the ninth year that he has joined Four Seasons’ World Gourmet Festival and each year, his two lunches and two dinners are fully booked. He and his business partner Izzy Yanay established Hudson Valley Foie Gras as one of the major foie gras producers in the world today.
Glenn Ballis is a colorful Australian who has a top-rated restaurant in Moscow. He claims that Russians don’t like to eat Russian food. They like to eat exotic Asian fusion food and that’s how Chef Ballis describes his cuisine: “fresh and light with new smells, tastes and textures, and unusual combinations from other countries.” He has a broad culinary background, having worked at Banyan Tree Hotel, Thailand; Harrod’s, London, with stints in Shanghai, Malaysia, and Guadeloupe.
Italian chef Maurizio Quaranta was chosen to whip up dishes for her Royal Highness Princess Soamsawali. His expertise of Italian cuisine was honed while working in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Cote d’Azur in France as well as in Central Italy. When he opened his second restaurant in 2002, Locanda del Pilone near Alba, he was honored with his first Michelin star.
Last but not least is Siggi Hall, who has his own restaurant in Reyjavik, Iceland. He has been a certified chef since 1982 and in 2006, was appointed by the Nordic Council of Ministers as an ambassador of Nordic food. He is also the author of two best-selling cookbooks.
It was truly a learning and fun experience for Jojo and me. After so many days of gourmet food and excellent wines, we were happy to be in Manila savoring sinigang na sugpo and pinakbet. We can hardly claim to be gourmets or gourmands.
