Mia Stainsby attends a dinner at Baan Lao with Thailand’s two-Michelin star chef Chumpol Jangrai as guest chef
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Where: 4100 Bayview St, Richmond
When: Tasting menu dinners, Wednesday to Sunday. Afternoon tea, Friday to Sunday.
Info: 778-839-5711. baanlao.ca
With the impending arrival of the Michelin Guide in Vancouver on October 3, I engaged in a timely discussion with Chumpol Jangprai, a two-Michelin star chef from R-Haan Thai restaurant in Bangkok.
He recently visited Baan Lao to present a collaborative Thai Royal dinner alongside his former student, the seraphic chef Nutcha Phanthoupheng, who creates dishes fit for kings at her Steveston-based restaurant.
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And that’s literally.
She adheres to the meticulous standards of Thai Royal cuisine, which features captivating presentations alongside top-notch and wholesome ingredients. Her skill lies in balancing and refining the culinary elements of salt, acid, bitter, sweet, fat, and umami into sophisticated dishes. Thai Royal cuisine avoids intense flavors and smells and similarly eschews bones, pits, and stones for polite consumption.
At the collaborative dinner, Phanthoupheng’s culinary expertise was showcased right at the entrance with three-dimensional displays of dahlia and chrysanthemum flowers, delicately carved into watermelon and honeydew, demonstrating impeccable focus.
Her two-star mentor believes she would also earn a couple of stars if the Michelin Guide covered Richmond, though it currently does not.
“She’s better than me now. I’m proud of her,” Jangprai remarked in an interview before the dinner. When asked to confirm, he earnestly agreed, “She’s doing very, very well. She was a student who was focused and very detailed and organized.”
Phanthoupheng is elated: “He saw me working in the kitchen and said, ‘Wow, you’re better than me now. You should get two Michelin stars here’. I made him proud. I achieved it,” she declares. “It’s my dream to reach that level.” Vancouver still lacks a two-star restaurant. As they worked together during the two dinners, he jokingly said “Yes, sir!” acknowledging her as the leader.
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Jangprai started his culinary journey at age 11, helping out at his family’s restaurant, which was favored by employees from the Royal Family. His extensive experience in Europe spans 11 years, during which he honed his skills at renowned three-Michelin-starred establishments like Pierre Gagnaire and El Celler de Can Roca, mastering modern European culinary techniques.
“I had the honour of cooking for Prime Minister Trudeau,” he recalls, referring to his role at the 2022 APEC ministerial meeting in Bangkok. His own establishment, R-Haan, was awarded one Michelin star in 2019, just a year following the Michelin Guide’s introduction to Bangkok, and by 2020, it became the first Thai restaurant to be awarded two stars.
For Jangprai and his colleague Phanthoupheng, creating authentic Thai cuisine extends beyond recipes—it’s about imbuing dishes with the essence of Thai life. “It’s about the soul,” they agree in unison. “The flavors, colors, textures, presentation, and scents need to come together in perfect harmony,” Jangprai explains. “Understanding how to blend these elements is essential, like orchestrating a symphony.”
During a recent collaborative dinner, they meticulously planned a seven-course tasting menu with four canapés and mignardises entirely over the phone. Each dish resulted from combined efforts—a challenging feat, as typically chefs alternate courses in such settings.
The meal started with an appetizing array of four small starters including jackfruit, duck breast, rice vermicelli, and grilled chicken. Following this was an elegant salad featuring fine veggies, prawns, and beluga caviar, served in a striking glass bowl surrounded by a mist of dry ice, with every detail meticulously arranged.
Next was a pleasing and rich octopus soup infused with coconut and fresh galangal. To introduce a tart flavor, they incorporated a unique type of Thai lime. A black seaweed-shaped tuile adorned the edge of the bowl.
Procuring Thai ingredients involves complexities like customs clearance, yet it is essential for Phanthoupheng. For instance, the jasmine rice used is sourced from her family’s farm in Thailand, and she is particular about using a specific Thai fish sauce. Efforts are also being made to import Thai mangoes that are otherwise unavailable locally.
“I want people to experience the authentic tastes of Thailand,” she declares.
The third dish presented a delightful blend of flavors with marinated grilled Japanese hamachi. Infused with lemongrass, lime leaves, curry spices, and fish sauce, it came accompanied by a rich satay sauce.
A meticulously prepared Nova Scotia lobster was presented in its most pure form, having been carefully removed from its shell following a gentle sous vide cooking with aromatic herbs and a brief searing. It was then dressed in a divine sauce crafted from a reduction of tom yum soup broth into a creamy delight, a process taking five hours.
Yellow curry Dungeness crab along with rice vermicelli was artistically arranged, with the crab nestled amid the noodles and garnished with colorful petals and micro-herbs, featuring specially sourced vermicelli from Thailand.
“Aroma is everything,” declares Phanthoupheng, noting the lemongrass, lime zest, and finger root that enhanced the curry’s fragrance. She highlights the finger root rhizome for its mild, sweet, herbaceous, and gingery scent, which “makes it smell very nice.”
Even the meat dish was presented with a sense of lightness and elegance. The Japanese A5 Wagyu and B.C. water buffalo tenderloins were served alongside spicy jungle curry, complemented by herbed jasmine rice and intricately carved local vegetables. The curry’s spiciness was subtle, just enough to be noticeable in a regal sense. Accompanying this was a massaman curry, enriched with herbs, star anise, cloves, and cinnamon, offering a smooth and earthy flavor profile.
The possibility of the preceding six courses overshadowing the dessert was low, as they were crafted without heavy fats, intense flavors, or the often challenging-to-digest wheat or dairy. Thus, I eagerly awaited the dessert procession, which promised sweetness in just the right amounts.
Beginning with a dish of candle-smoked jackfruit ice cream accompanied by sticky rice and taro root, each sprinkled with gold leaf and wrapped in a banana leaf. In Thai culinary traditions, tian op—a candle imbued with aromatic substances—is employed to impart a smoky flavor to the food, especially desserts.
Following this came a tart mango sorbet drizzled with fish sauce caramel. Surprisingly, the pungent essence of fish sauce was ingeniously incorporated into this refined dessert, where the chefs skillfully muted its sharpness while enhancing its savory qualities through experimentation with various sugars.
“When I was young, I loved to eat sour mango with a sweet fish sauce,” says Phanthoupheng. “That’s where I got the idea.”
That sauce was incorporated into the sorbet as well.
Pink-hued water chestnut and coconut cream cleansed my palate before the final bites — a luk chup mandarin orange (a Thai craft of sculpting with mung bean paste) and a white lotus flower cookie infused with candle smoke.
The meal came with a premium wine pairing by the restaurant’s consulting master sommelier, Pier-Alexis Soulière (including a grand cru champagne) or a tea pairing by in-house tea sommelier Lena Pan. Wine consultant Soulière is a phenom (World Young Sommelier of the Year in 2014, Quebec’s Best Sommelier, Best Sommelier of the Americas, Best Sommelier of Canada) and he selects wines for the two tasting menu offerings at Baan Lao as well as the overall wine list. There is also an in-house restaurant sommelier and cocktails are curated by award-winning bartender Kaitlyn Stewart.
The food was, indeed, meticulously crafted and up to Michelin standards.
At Baan Lao, servers adhere to royal Thai and traditional European service protocols, offering white glove service and maintaining a subdued presence. They limit tableside conversation to brief descriptions of each course, treating each guest royally. This degree of formality, although not entirely aligned with Vancouver’s usual dining ethos, aims to provide a regal experience. Perhaps a more relaxed interaction could enhance the overall experience at Baan Lao, in my opinion, yet the establishment embraces its formal approach.
New initiatives are being considered by the Baan Lao team, but details are yet to be confirmed. You’ll have to stay updated.
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