The year of Thailand

The connection between Identità Golose and Thailand started to take shape on a hot afternoon, last July at Trussardi alla Scala, with the meeting of Chumpol Jangprai and host-chef Luigi Taglienti. With such good omens, the foundations were created for the most visited country in Indochina to become the guest-nation during Identità Milano, with a day packed with content which will liven up the Auditorium hall throughout the morning of Tuesday February 11th.

First there will be a worthy prologue on Sunday night, 9th of February, when the doors of Trussardi will once again open to celebrate the East meets West dinner, with a collaborative tasting menu that Taglienti will prepare together with Dylan Jones and Bo Songvisava, respectively from Australia and Thailand, the souls behind restaurant Bo.lan in Bangkok, defined by the New York Times as «one of the most intelligent sustainable restaurants in the world».

We saw them recently, on the stage of Madrid Fusión. Acclaimed by everyone, the recalled their meeting in the kitchens of Nahm in London’s Hyde Park, once the only Thai restaurant in the world holding a Michelin star (the fruit of the visions of Australian chef Dave Thompson, now at work at Nahm in Bangkok). Dylan and Bo are very clever in combining balanced dish, a task that is not easy with recipes that can include even 20 ingredients and that draw from the most varied traditions. The distance from Thailand’s northern border with China, Laos and Myanmar, down to the southern one with Malaysia is as large as 2 thousand kilometres. It will be interesting, therefore, to move from the practice (with the dinner on Sunday 9th) to the theory of their lesson, scheduled on Tuesday 11th at 12.15.

Before them, on the stage of the Auditorium hall we will see three other great interpreters. We still recall Chumpol Jamprai’s fantastic Ossobuco with red curry, prepared at Arte del Convivio in July (his lecture will be at 10). Tied with a thousand activities to the Blue Elephant group, Jamprai is one of Thailand’s most popular chefs, a master of tradition with an almost encyclopaedical knowledge enclosed between Chang Rai and the island on one side and the other of the isthmus, interpreted with a personality and a technique that try to come closer to the western palate.

Prin Polsuk (at 10.45) is instead Dave Thompson’s second at Nahm in Bangkok. Already in 1991, in Australia, he had been crowned by the Sydney Morning Herald for the “Best Thai restaurant in Australia”. Over 20 years later, Dave and Prin are considered among the highest world experts in their cuisine, with an approach that is constantly trying to find the perfect balance between hot and sour, sweet and savoury, reached thanks to raw materials with vigorous flavours such as garlic, prawn pasta or lemongrass.

Finally Henrik Yde (lecture at 11.30) is the Danish mind behind Kiin Kiin in Copenhagen: this is now the only Thai restaurant in Europe with a Michelin star. This restaurant tries to interpret the Thai soul within the European fine dining context. Besides, this is only one of the many restaurants that Yde runs in the Danish capital, crowded with many Asian bistros that can be ascribable to him, such as Dim Sum, Yuma, Aroidee…