Left to Hamlet there never would have been a Front Room. Imagine the procrastinating prince pondering how to fuse the spicy rusticity of grassroots Thai cuisine with the carb-lite calorie intake of modern Vikings.
No, the world had to wait for an improbable plot twist uniting Chiang Rai-born Rungthiwa (Fae) Chummongkhon with her personal Prince of Denmark in Udon Thani, for this latest chapter in Thai-Danish culinary ties to unfold.
Fae graduated culinary school in Denmark then worked top New Nordic kitchens such as Noma for 12 years. She's gone on to evolve a visually delicious marriage of Thai recipes and Scandinavian cooking techniques, brilliantly harmonising the latter's fermenting, smoking and curing to the former's exotic ingredients and flavours.
Located at the swish Waldorf Astoria Hotel Bangkok, Ratchadamri Road's Lower Lobby, Front Room is a stylish mélange of contemporary western and traditional Thai design elements. A monumental forged-metal garland announces a stretch of showcases leading to the theatre kitchen and high-ceiling dining room extending streetwards.
Choose from 7- or 10-course tasting menus (2,700/3,300 wine pairing 2,500/2,900, juice pairing 600/800) or a la carte.
A welcome drink of grilled winter melon, infused with coconut and pandan leaves sets the delicious-nutritious tone. As Thai-Inspired Nordic cuisine, there's no steamed rice but Fae squeezes it in covertly, including black sticky rice soda bread onto which you paste sour-creamy fermented soya butter.
The full-Monty, replete with Ophelia-evoking floral moments, begins with five "Velkommen" dainties: Danish "aebleskiver" pancake balls, sautéed mushroom, yellow pickle mayo. Flat wooden spoons sporting broccoli emulsion over belt chips. Lotus petal-shaped celeriac, beetroot and yoghurt chips nestle actual lotus blooms. Toasted Vietnamese springroll paper razor clam lookalikes are filled with diced razor clam, ginger root, coconut heart and herby mayo. Sweet potato tacos are filled with green apple brunois and peanut cream.
The juice pairing for appetizers 1 and 2 offers pineapple and jicama over orange peel. Round and Spiny sees cold applewood-smoked Norwegian salmon trout complemented with grilled carrot, bitter orange jelly, rice mayo, and fish sauce fermented with spices, fruits and honey. In Reborn, a cracked egg-white and mussel stock shell cradles a raw Royal Project egg yolk confit with thyme oil and sits atop quinoa, pickled pumpkin, celery and pungent Thai mussels sauce with a milder US mussel left whole.
Raised in Korat sees Fae riffing on smoking. Juicy Thai beef tartarised with pickled papaya fills cigar-like cauliflower chips dusted with black garlic powder. With sour cream and saffron foam, it truly is smokin'.
To the Sea is Aussie toothfish sousvide tenderised, grilled and served with smoked clam sauce, seafood powder, crispy fish skin, prawn cracker and prawn mayo. Wash down with dill-infused guava and yellow watermelon juice.
Sukhothai-sourced duck breast rolled with truffle paste and black garlic is seasoned with charcoal garlic, pan-seared and sauced with mulberry jus. Seared jicama, pearl barley salad, and mulberry balsamic clove-infused green apple and star fruit juice complete the appetizingly layered flavours.
‘I am Young' is a sharp sorbet of tamarind leaf served with drinking yoghurt pearls, milk chips and honey crumble. Fae loves juxtaposing vegetable and fruit, acid and creamy-sweetness in her desserts. Here she makes ice cream of grilled aubergine, accompanied with caramalised egglant, and mulberries in jelly, granite, powder and meringue forms.
Conclude with ginger-lemongrass tea and elaborate petits fours, from chocolate-coated caramelized black sticky rice to coconut macaron/galangal cream and six more.
Biodynamic and organic wines are curated to the food. Cool contemporary sounds pervade the airwaves.
Too late for the 2nd Thailand Michelin Guide, it looks a lock for the 3rd.
Open daily 5.30-10.30 p.m. Tel. -02-846 8888
