Baille Ranjith Chandrasiri, shows his profound appreciation to the master
chefs, Werner Snoek, Giorgio Stephanosian, Jens Heier and Hirokazu Tomisawa
for their fine cuisine.
Dr. Iain Corness
With the Amari’s Mantra
restaurant promoting their gourmet festival with three visiting chefs to
join resident chef Jens Heier, it was too good an occasion for the local
chapter of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs to miss.
The Chaîne dinner was then
held on Sunday March 20, featuring the four very talented chefs, from four
very different backgrounds.
Chef Werner Snoek came from
the Saxon Boutique Hotel, where his culinary expertise is well known in
South Africa.
Chef Hirokazu Tomisawa came
from Yoshimura, Japan and is one of the country’s famous Japanese chefs.
Chef Giorgio Stephanosian
came from Restaurant Galerie, in Monpazier an interesting mediaeval town in
France. Giorgio is, however, Italian and a connoisseur of Italian and
French food, but he was also trained in Thai cuisine by the Mandarin
Oriental.
The fourth chef was resident
chef, Jens Heier, a German who has worked in Italy, Switzerland, Korea,
Vietnam and China, before coming to us just over 12 months ago, and has
already developed a strong following in Pattaya.
As is usual with Chaîne
dinners, there is a reception, this time held in the Mantra’s amazing
cocktail bar, with the reception wine being a Merotto Colbelo Valdobbiadene
Prosecco Extra Dry NV. This was a light sparkler and a palate cleanser
before the 45 Chaîne members and guests got down to the serious business of
good wine and food.
The first dish was Japanese,
from chef Tomisawa-San’s and was an amazing Unami Jully Kake, which featured
steamed sea bass, boiled clam jelly, sea urchin, seaweed, Japanese soy sauce
and Spanish caviar, which chef Jens told me costs 60,000 THB for one kg!
This was washed down with the Hildenbrand Estate Chenin Blanc 2007.
The next wine, the Firriato
Chiaramonte Ansonica 2009 was a very special Sicilian wine made from 100
percent Ansonica grapes and was scored by celebrated wine judge Robert
Parker as 89/100. This wine was taken with Chef Jens’ butter fish fillet
with mango chutney and mint foam and was superb, and was my pick of the
combination of dish and wine.
Italian chef Giorgio, who
prefers French, made a risotto with green asparagus, morels and Maine
lobster, taken with the impossibly long named Michele Castellani
Valpolicella Classico DOC Superiore Ripasso 2005.
The wine for the main course
of the evening was a Firriato Ribeca IGT 2004, another full-bodied Sicilian
wine taken with Chef Werner’s trio of Natal Midland beef. One interesting
item was the beef cheeks done in Cape Malay style, which is actually more of
an Indonesian dish!
The dessert was a honey and
lavender crème brulee with pistachio ice cream. The wine to go with this
was a very interesting, Michele Castellani Recioto della Valpolicella 2005.
There is an old English
proverb that states, “Too many cooks spoil the broth.” It was obvious at
the Chaîne dinner that the four chefs could work together under one roof
without treading on each other’s toes.
Members of the Chaine des Rotisseurs and guests enjoy cocktails in
anticipation of the main event.
