FINE DINING


WOR DS C A T H ARINE NIC OL


69 L busine s s tr a v eller .com


ast year, Bangkok restaurants of every sort, from the highest echelons of fine dining to street-food eateries, were searched out, inspected and


reinspected by the people behind the Michelin Guide. Finally, on December 6, 2017, three two-star restaurants, 14 one-star restaurants and a longer list of Bib Gourmands and Plates made it into the world-famous little red book. Without a doubt, the chef who


stole the Michelin show was the diminutive 72-year-old Jay Fai (or Auntie Fai), the culinary talent behind the only street-food venue to win a star. She is renowned for the high-quality, and relatively high-priced, crab omelette and prawn noodles she wok-fries at her family’s open-air Banglamphu shophouse. A surprised and rather overwhelmed


Auntie Fai donned chef whites for the occasion (she usually wears a rather beguiling outfit of T-shirt, apron, beanie hat and protective ski goggles) and confessed that before


the event she really had no idea what a Michelin star was and almost decided not to attend. By contrast, one-star winner


Bee Satongun, co-founder of Paste alongside Australian husband Jason Bailey, said she had been waiting a long time for Michelin to come to town. Te 42-year-old chef has been cooking since she was five, and now specialises in giving old royal Tai recipes a contemporary touch. “Tai cuisine can take its rightful


place as one of the most diverse, intense cuisines in the world today,” announced Michael Ellis, international director of the Michelin Guide, at the awards event. “In Tai food you can find something nowhere else in the world, a combination of all the tastes found on the palate: salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami are all mixed with different temperatures and textures.” Of course, foodies don’t need a


Michelin Guide to tell them how good Tai food is. However, the newly awarded one-star Tai restaurants alongside Jay Fai and Paste (which include Bo.Lan, Chim by Siam


→


LEFT: Bangkok now boasts a host of newly minted Michelin-starred restaurants ABOVE: Jay Fai is considered one of the city’s best street-food cooks, winning a Michelin star for her open-air Banglamphu shophouse


NOVEMB ER 2018


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