Thai Food as 'Luck' Would Have It

The following interview with the head chef of Koh Lanta's Pimalai Resort took place on October 26th 2010.

Koh Lanta, a large island off the Andaman Coast of Thailand, is home to Kantiang beach, voted in 2009 by the Sunday Times as the kingdom’s best. Occupying fully 900 metres of this broad stretch of pristine sand is Pimalai resort, perhaps Thailand’s most classy essay in understated elegance and the harmonious integration of luxury with nature. The resort’s most senior sous chef is 36-year old Mr Yutthapong Phangsri, whose nickname is Luck, and who has spent the last 17 years cooking in Thailand and in 6 other countries. Simon Ramsden interviewed Luck.

Simon: Why are you a chef?

Luck: I think maybe I was a hungry person in a previous life.

Simon: In your previous life, were you a hungry Thai?

Luck: I don’t think so, because there has never been a famine in Thailand. We are blessed with a fertile country surrounded by a lengthy coastline, which offers up a daily bounty of seafood that is at least as good as that found anywhere else in the region.

Simon: We English eat to live, while our French neighbours live to eat, what is the Thai attitude to food?

Luck: I guess we feel the same way as the English. Historically, food was regarded as a means to stay alive, and not so important. People would just wait around for the coconuts to drop off the tree, then eat them - an easy life was regarded as more important that fancy food.

Simon: So you don’t regard food as important?

Luck: Yes, I do. In the last century the Thai attitude to food changed, for these reasons:

• Firstly, during the wettest part of the rainy season it isn’t possible to do much outdoor work, so Thai people started to use the time to experiment with food. At this time of year the monks can’t leave the temples for fear of damaging the rice crop, so we go the temples to make merit by feeding them. Last century people started to get very innovative with their food offerings to the temples, and many new dishes were invented.
• Secondly, during the during the rainy season many men get bored, so their wives cook them lots of tasty dishes to keep them at home, and not away misbehaving.
• Lastly, in the last century the royal chefs spent ages experimenting with different recipes and ingredients, in order to come up with new delicacies to tempt the royal taste-buds.

Simon: Whereabouts in southern Thailand is this royal cuisine available?

Luck: Hardly anywhere. Many of the dishes are very time-consuming to make.

Simon: Can you give me an example of a dish invented in the royal kitchens, please?

Luck: ‘Gerng pet pet’.

Simon: I know ‘gerng’ means curry, but after the word ‘gerng’, you just said the word ‘pet’ twice. Why did you do that?

Luck: The first time I said it, I used a low tone, to mean ‘duck’. The second time I said the word ‘pet’ I used a rising tone, to mean spicy. So ‘gerng pet pet’ means ‘spicy duck curry’.

Simon: Is that the one with the incredibly tasty brown sauce?

Luck: Yes, it is.

Simon: That’s my favourite one here. I’ve only ever seen it at Pimalai. How do you make it?

Luck: We gently roast the duck for four hours. The base ingredients for most Thai dishes are galangal, lemongrass and kaffir lime. We take these ingredients, together with the finest fruit from all over Thailand, and reduce them for four hours, to form the curry sauce.

Simon: Which fruits do you use, and where do they come from?

Luck: The best lychees come from Chiang Mai, the best pineapples come from Chonburi, the best longan come from Lampun, the best red apples come from Petchaburi, and the best coconut milk comes from Rachaburi.

Simon: Where do you buy your fruit and herbs?

Luck: We have to go all the way to Nakhon Si Thammarat, 200 kilometres away, to find the freshest, highest quality ingredients.

Simon: Is it really necessary to go all the way there, when there is a huge market in Krabi Town 80 kilometres away.

Luck: Yes, it is necessary – if we are to treat our guests like royalty, only the very best ingredients will do.

Simon: What’s the hardest thing about your job?

Luck: My biggest challenge as a manager is creating a team spirit where everyone works together in a calm way. When two chefs have worked together for some months, a telepathic form communication starts to take place. This effortless communication is a very good thing, and I need to encourage my staff to get comfortable with each other as quickly as possible.

Simon: European hotel kitchens have a reputation for being hot-tempered places. What is the atmosphere like at Pimalai?

Luck: We almost always stay calm, even when we are working very hard. In Thai culture it is completely unacceptable to start shouting and swearing like the chefs do in European kitchens. If I behaved like that, all of my staff would resign.

Simon: Do you have any food advice for Western visitors?

Luck: Yes, go to a local market and buy a kilo each of a few different curry pastes, then take them home with you. They cost about a twentieth of what you would pay in the West, and are usually better quality.

Simon: Here on Koh Lanta we are in the southern part of Thailand. What are the defining characteristics of southern food?

Luck: The signature technique of the local cuisine is the liberal use of turmeric, which creates curries that are not too spicy in the mouth, but warm the stomach in a pleasing way. Turmeric is especially fortifying for the body, and is eaten by manual labourers in the rainy season, in order to stop them getting cold when working outside in the rain.

Simon: Is Thai food healthy?

Luck: Yes, it is, very much so. Most of the ingredients we use are also medicines. Garlic and galangal will ease a headache, basil soothes the stomach, and ginger tea alleviates a hangover, by forcing the body to sweat out the toxins.

Simon: In England we eat a fried breakfast to try to cure a hangover.

Luck: If I ate something as oily as that on a hangover I think I would vomit!

Simon: Are there any ingredients that are helpful to men in need of a more recent birthday, as aphrodisiacs?

Luck: Yes, in Thailand we take a stalk of lemongrass, then peel away 90% of it to expose the soft inner core. Eaten raw, this enhances male sexual performance.

Simon: Is it on the menu, please?

Luck: Yes, raw lemongrass salad is called ‘yam ta kay’, and is typically eaten with pork or prawns.  

Simon: What is your typical daily working routine?

Luck: I start work at 7am and finish at 11pm. Usually I have enough time to take half an hour off for lunch, but not always.

Simon: Is that why we’re doing this interview at 11.30pm?

Luck: Yes.

Simon: How do you feel about working a 16 hour day?

Luck: I am happy to do it. I could work a shorter day if I wanted to, but I want to work hard.

Simon: Why?

Luck: I hope to find a wife soon, and then have a family with her. I want to be able to provide well for my future family.

Simon: Surely you must get completely exhausted.

Luck: Not really. I try to always stay calm. Even when my body is rushing around the kitchen and I am issuing non-stop instructions to my staff, my mind is calm. 

Simon: How do you manage that?

Luck: I use the Buddhist technique of mindfulness of breathing. I focus part of my mind on my breath, and use that as a kind of mental anchor to keep myself calm.

Simon: What is your favourite Thai dish?

Luck: Mo pat gra pow, crispy pork with basil and garlic. It is difficult to get the skin crispy, not chewy, but it is worth the effort. First I gently steam the meat for four hours, then I gently deep-fry it for three hours. I reserve the oil used in the deep-frying and use it later to cook Thai-style omelettes, which taste much better when fried in that oil.

Simon: Where does all the seafood on the menu come from?

Luck: The prawns, the squid, the lobster and most of the fish are local, except for the Tasmanian salmon and the  Japanese red tuna. The baby scallops are local, and the king scallops come from Japan.

Simon: Those king scallops are delicious. A week ago here I had the best seafood pizza I have ever tasted, anywhere. That’s quite an accolade, as I’m a bit of a pizza expert.

Luck: I guess that’s why you are a bit fat, ha ha, sorry, only joking.

Simon: You Thai people are a strange bunch; on the one hand you are the politest people on the planet, but on the other hand also the bluntest - it’s a good job I’m not sensitive about my spare inner tube. The day after your chef Micky cooked me the best pizza I had ever had, he cooked me another, even better one. I had complimented him on the quality of the king scallops on the first pizza, so on the second one he added extra scallops.

Luck: You’re not the first person to compliment us on our pizza, it is very popular.

Simon: I guess I won’t be the last either. Thanks for your time.

Luck: You’re welcome.

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