France does fancy better than nearly anyone. But the thing is, I generally prefer the hearty country fare and casual everyday bistro food to white-tablecloth haute cuisine. The flavors never feel as rich despite usually being too filling; the mood is often too stuffy. However, up in Chiang Mai, Chef Carlos Manuel Gaudencio has me rethinking that paradigm. Having just taken over the kitchen at Farang Ses, at the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi, the thirty-something who spent the past seven years at Le Normandie in Bangkok, recently served me two consecutive six-course meals that were diverse, light and playful takes on Continental classics. Rainbow sherbet palate cleanser? Nope: that?s pink, orange and white frothy soup made from three vegetables and tinted with truffle oil. Ending an enormous meal on steak should just send you over the edge, right? Not if it?s two perfectly sized slices of Wagyu cooked sous vide, encircled by a few tiny carrot trees.
It?s tough to make food fun without being too twee about it, but this man can polka-dot a plate and have even the most jaded grown man cooing at the cuteness of it all. And thank you, chef Carlos, for all the lobster?roasted tails with apple ?marshmallows? and a bisque in which the chunks of meat were cradled in a delicate pastry pot; you really know the way to a woman?s heart. As Dhara Dhevi general manager Torsten van Dullemen says of his Le Grand V?four-trained handsome new maestro, ?The ladies love him.?
Oh, and P.S.: If someone tries to serve you a boring platter of legumes de saison, don?t reject the seemingly random radish and fris?e out of hand?those are a trompe-l?oiel of a marzipan-encased ice cream ball and spot of light sponge cake courtesy of pastry chef Fabrice Leblus. Eat your veggies!
?JENINNE LEE-ST. JOHN
Homard r?ti au beurre doux, pomme fondant et r?p? de radis rose
Roasted scallops in a potato nest with seafood consomm?
From left: Parichaya Na Nakornpanom, Dhara Dhevi?s Assistant Director of Sales & Marketing; Rene David Bennett, Assistant Food & Beverage Manager; Chef Carlos; U.S. Consul General to Chiang Mai, Kenneth L. Foster; T+L SEA Feature Editor, Jeninne; Wichai Charoenpanvorakul, Dhara Dhevi?s Director of Sales & Marketing
Chef Carlos and his Farang Ses kitchen staff
Chef Carlos?s new menu debuted May 26, 2013.
http://www.mandarinoriental.com/chiangmai/fine-dining/farang-ses/
+66-53/888888 ext. 8549.
Source: http://blog.travelandleisureasia.com/destination/2013/05/27/the-new-french/
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