So far, so close

In Milan we’ve just had a loud Thai competition, though it had nothing to do with the ferocious and harmonic Thai-box. Or perhaps it did, since the dishes cooked during Chumpol Jangprai’s Italian show struck the imaginary, sometimes for their cruel spiciness, sometimes for the balance there was between so many ingredients that it was difficult to figure how he had made it.

Forty year-old CJ, tied to the very many activities of the Blue Elephant group, is one of the most popular chefs in his country, a master of tradition who arrived in Italy for a double event created by Identità Golose in collaboration with the Thailand Trade Office in Milan: first on Thursday at Caffè Trussardi for a double menu created together with Luigi Taglienti (you can find the complete story of this event in issue #401of Identità’s newsletter), while yesterday at noon he was at Convivium Lab, in Corso Magenta, for a demonstration he dished out in front of some great chefs working in Milan.

This lunch and dinner were organised to help participants understand the many complexities of a cuisine that has often conquered us while at the same time it has left us “lost in translation” because of its many profound differences, namely the ease in the use of sweet and sour flavours, the absence of a rigid separation between courses. Or the non-appearance of ingredients such as butter, dairy products, olive oil, pasta or vinegar – substituted by coconut milk, lemongrass, galanga, mee-krob (rice vermicelli) and a huge selection of scents that the West can only be envious of.

This was the occasion for a dialogue between two worlds that found curious and enthusiastic voices on one end of the telephone to the other. For instance, Fabrizio Ferrari of Porticciolo 84 in Lecco said: «I came here because I’m a great fan of Thai cuisine. Among my entrées there’s a Thai soup of cuttings, served at room temperature and inspired by Tom Kha Kai: two ladles of raw fish, tamarind and curry on a Roman salad with seared capelli d’angelo». Recipe will be soon available.

Another chef that goes crazy for Bangkok’s alchemies is Alice Delcourt of Erba Brusca: «My parents lived in Thailand for 5 years. When we were in Chicago they always took me to eat that food. I enjoy the mixture of sweet, savoury, acid and spicy very much. And then there are interesting techniques, such as that of blending raw garlic and herbs». Maida Mercuri of Pont de Ferr, on the other hand, is mad about «all their fantastic street food. And about the great tendency to add ingredients». Next to her, her chef Matias Perdomo nods, struck, as he is, by the «very long preparations. This cuisine seems to require and use lots of time, the time you need to put 25 ingredients together. This is an individual, rather than collective, ritual, in the kitchen but also when eating».

Claudio Sadler, instead, admires «the richness of spices and the very strong use of sugar – yesterday we discovered palm sugar, obtained by coconut milk brought to the boil – Once I cooked a Thai menu. The Lemongrass, coconut and crab soup» was much appreciated. The last interesting quote is by Alessandro Negrini of Aimo e Nadia: «it is a very distant cuisine from our own. Aimo, however, reminds me that in Florence ginger was very often used. So much so that there was an idiom: ‘You’re as spicy as ginger’». So far, so close.