In Thailand, a highbrow gala dinner featuring locally sourced vegetables might seem incongruous, especially when it comes to publicity. Rarely is cabbage highlighted as part of an expensive meal. That is unless someone -- whether it be the chef or the dinner host -- is of a mind to celebrate these typically overlooked ingredients.
Chaipattana red cabbage and jalapeño sorbet.
For the past few years, this has been the case at Bangkok Chefs Charity Fundraising Gala Dinner. The annual event, which began in 2009, aims to help raise funds for needy students in remote areas across Thailand through world-class meals cooked by a team of international executive chefs.
"It is very important that, while we indulge in exquisite imported meat and seafood, we don't forget to celebrate our home-grown harvest and support local agronomists," said Nuntiya Hame-ung-gull, managing director of Gourmet One and the Bangkok Chefs Charity's founder. This year's dinner, presided over by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, takes place on Monday, at the Royal Ballroom of Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok.
The high-minded affair promises to indulge 350 guests with an 11-course gourmet meal crafted by 22 top chefs, some Michelin-starred, from the country's most exclusive 5-star establishments, namely Anantara Golden Triangle Chiang Rai; Anantara Siam Bangkok; Angsana Laguna Phuket; the Athenee Bangkok; Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen's Park; Capella Bangkok; Centara Grand at CentralWorld; Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok; Intercontinental Bangkok; JW Marriott Bangkok; the Landmark Bangkok; Mandarin Oriental Bangkok; Millennium Hilton Bangkok; the Peninsula Bangkok; Renaissance Bangkok Ratchaprasong; Shangri-La Hotel Bangkok; Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit; Siam Kempinski Bangkok; Thai Airways International and the Waldorf Astoria Bangkok.
The menu has been creatively designed using the best-quality produce from all over the world, including the crème de la crème of local fruit and vegetables from royally-initiated agricultural projects. Among the culinary highlights of this year's event is an impressive range of pesticide-free vegetables from Jan-Ka-Pak, a green shop under the umbrella of the Chaipattana Foundation. The shop serves as a market channel for produce from Prince Chakrabandh Pensiri Center for Plant Development, as well as from local growers in Chiang Rai who enlisted in the programme.
Bhakamol Rattaseri of the Chaipattana Foundation said that the Bangkok Chefs Charity Fundraising Gala Dinner has used chemical-free vegetables from Jan-Ka-Pak for three years. And while the event aims to help impoverished students in Thailand's remote areas, the benefits of the collaboration between the two bodies go far beyond that.
"Of course, proceeds go to help with children's education. But at the same time, the collaboration with the Chaipattana Foundation indirectly supports local people in various farming communities because our foundation is dedicated to developing sustainability in their neighbourhoods. It's like doubling the good deeds," she said.
Guests at this year's gala dinner can expect such delights as seared Hokkaido scallops with Yunnan ham and local sweet potato, garlic flowers and sorrel cress. "The quality of the vegetables from Jan-Ka-Pak is on a par with, if not better than, their imported counterparts," said Anantara Siam Bangkok's executive chef Jan Van Dyk, one half of the cooking duo behind the scallop dish.
Seared Hokkaido scallops with Yunnan ham, local sweet potato, garlic flowers and sorrel cress.
Over the three years he's been in Thailand, the South African has been a regular patron of the royal project's produce. "I am impressed that the variety in their harvest is increasing every month. More impressively, the people at the centre are very open-minded and really listen to the chef's needs," Van Dyk said.
Another dish that promises to electrify guest palates is the red cabbage and jalapeño sorbet, by Anantara Golden Triangle Chiang Rai's executive chef Pisit Jinopong. "Our hotel is only 5km away from Jan-Ka-Pak, so we frequently go there, not just to shop, but also for some cooking inspiration," Pisit said. "One day, I saw some nice jalapeño peppers, so I decided to buy them and use them in our dishes. Some of our guests are from Mexico and they said it tasted like home."
Designed especially for the 2019 Bangkok Chefs Charity gala dinner, chef Pisit's pinkish-purple sorbet is a creative and delicious marriage of red cabbage, passion fruit, orange, vanilla and jalapeños, all grown in Chiang Rai. The refreshingly tart and tangy sorbet is given a delicately sweet touch by the wild honey from Doi Tung, also in Chiang Rai.
The event also celebrates the versatility and health benefits of Camellia oleifera tea seed oil. One of the most extensively researched essential oils, it is almost 90% unsaturated fat and can lower LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol levels and harmful triglycerides in the body.
The oil is developed and marketed by PatPat, a brand chaired by Princess Sirindhorn for products from various sustainable projects under the Chaipattana Foundation. King Bhumibol Adulyadej granted an initiative for the establishment of the Chaipattana Foundation to provide prompt and necessary responses to problems affecting Thai citizens' tranquillity and well-being through various development projects. He bestowed the name "PatPat" on the foundation.
Representing the evening's third course is Asian herb mesclun salad with water chestnuts, lemon butter and tea seed oil vinaigrette dressing. Thai Airways International's executive chef Pierre Andre Hauss, the creator of the dish, said that the Camellia oleifera tea seed oil won him over due to its health benefits and mild taste.
"Compared to the much stronger taste and characteristic fragrance of olive oil, which is hard to alter, the tea seed oil tastes very mild; thus, it's a perfect base on which to add various flavours. For me, it's the best cooking oil around," Hauss said. As for the salad greens, they come from Jan-Ka-Pak. "The colour, freshness and taste are comparable to the ones imported from Europe."
"Making the public aware of the many benefits of these high-quality products by the charitable foundation goes in line with the Bangkok Chefs Charity's concept," Gourmet One's Nuntiya Hame-ung-gull said. "We aim to offer ultimate gourmet creations that are heavenly for the palate and as well beneficial for the health."
In addition to the above-mentioned dishes, the menu, carefully arranged to provide a brilliant gastronomic sequence, features smoked eel cheesecake with tarragon; Szechuan soup bonbon; turnip cake with oyster and cucumber; fuqui feipian millefeuille of beef with spices and sesame; slow-cooked salmon with tom yum coconut pannacotta, pickled cucumber, red onion and turmeric cauliflower florets; pan-fried duck liver with pistachio crumble, black cherry gastrique and truffle juice; drunken lobster, cucumber, green apple and celery; slow-roasted duck breast with cherry, hazelnuts, golden egg and stone potato; oriental herb tea with smoked pigeon and enoki mushroom; beef Wellington with heirloom carrots and smoked abalone sauce; and Mandarin sphere dessert with pistachio dacquoise and chocolate crumbles.
Thus far, the Bangkok Chefs Charity project has raised more than 132 million baht through ticket sales, auctions and donations. The majority of the money has gone to the Royal Patrol Police schools under Her Royal Highness' patronage. The rest of the funds have been utilised to provide scholarships for poverty-stricken students and contribute towards the purchase of teaching and learning materials and sports equipment for needy schools in remote areas across Thailand.
Last year, part of the proceeds went towards the construction of two schools in Chiang Mai -- the Bangkok Chefs Charity Border Patrol Police School at Ban Mae Long Tai in Om Koi district and Bangkok Chefs Charity Border Patrol Police School at Ban Mae Khor in Mae Chaem district.
