Asia’s best chefs recognized

A list called Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, a spinoff of the much celebrated World’s 50 Best Restaurants, is launched every year, with ceremonies held in the first quarter and usually attended by the chef/restaurateur-awardees.

This year’s awards ceremony was held in Bangkok, Thailand.

This year’s top three are: Gaggan, an Indian restaurant in Bangkok, maintaining its No. 1 spot from last year; Narisawa, an ingenious restaurant by trailblazer Chef Yoshihiro Narisawa in Tokyo, which held the No. 1 spot in the first Asia’s 50 Best awards; and Restaurant Andre, a fine dining restaurant in Singapore.

Bangkok also celebrated the Lifetime Achievement Award of David Thompson, a charming, intellectual Australian chef who has become an authority on traditional Thai cuisine, showcasing the best of Thai cooking at his restaurant Nahm, No. 1 in the second year of the Asia’s 50 Best awards.

Thompson was here a couple of years ago for a forum organized by Leisa Tyler of the World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards and will be here again from April 7-9 for Madrid Fusion Manila. (Visit madridfusionmanila.com on how to get tickets.)

But there is a 50 Best beyond Gaggan, Narisawa and Andre.

Bangkok’s best Thai chef

Ian Kittichai, by reputation and accolades, is Bangkok’s best Thai chef.

His restaurant, Issaya Siamese Club, came in second to Aussie David Thompson’s Nahm on the top Thai restaurants on the Asia’s 50 list.

You might also recognize him from the show “3 Chefs 1 City” on the Asian Food Channel.

Deeply committed to the industry, Kittichai has 15 restaurants in operation around the world.

In 2014, he opened in Bangkok the Issaya Cooking Studio as well as Issaya La Pâtisserie, sister restaurant of Hyde & Seek called Hyde & Seek Peek-A-Boo and Asian gastro bar Namsaah Bottling Trust.

In New York, he has four branches of Spot Dessert Bar. And he recently took over Tangerine in Singapore.

But Issaya is his home and showcase, where he serves the Thai cuisine he grew up with, while incorporating modern culinary trends he picks up on his travels and using techniques he learned in his 11 years with the Four Seasons Hotels around the world (Bangkok, Tokyo, Vegas, Palm Beach, New York, San Francisco and Paris).

The pomelo salad here, highly recommended by him, is served in a clay pot, as if it were literally a plant. He also serves his baby back ribs or Kradook Moo (moo pare) on top of what looks like a personalized charcoal grill to achieve a smokey aroma, while the spices as well as the Issaya house-blended chili paste brings back Thai flavors.

Pickled cucumbers, meanwhile, temper the bite of the Mussamun curry that he serves his boneless lamb shank with, displaying his understanding of balance in flavors for the foreign palate.

The restaurant is located in a charming, centuries-old home complete with patio, which is also used for dining, and a garden.

It is a lovely setting for brunch if you are visiting Bangkok.

But here’s some good news for those who just want to meet him: Chef Ian Kittichai will be in Manila from April 20-24 for the World Street Food Congress.

Singapore’s hottest new chef

If you find yourself in Singapore, check out the restaurants of these three new Singapore-based chefs on the Asia’s 50 Best list: Kirk Westaway of Jaan at the Swissotel, Willin Low of Wild Rocket and Jason Tan of Corner House.

While Jaan is not new to the list, having been given favorable reviews by the World’s 50 Best jury since Andre Chiang was its chef de cuisine, Westaway just took over the kitchen last year. An Englishman, he says he is committed to serving French cuisine but with English sensibilities.

If you must spend on one splurge meal in Singapore, do visit Jaan by Westaway. He hit No. 29 on his first try but he might as well be among the top three. This 30-year-old is a genius.

The science and art that he puts in every dish are exceptional. Take a tomato. The effort that he puts into making one tomato—one!—is unbelievable.

His tomato dish is more complex than it seems. In fact, it takes Westaway’s team  three days—not hours—and three different kinds of tomatoes to achieve this perfect Jaan-diner-worthy tomato.

The process: French organic vine-ripened tomatoes are flown in from France. These are skinned and hollowed out. The contents are then mixed with shallots and garlic and hung up for 24 hours to dehydrate and with this they make an intense clear tomato consomme. The tomato shells are then semi-poached in a sous vide machine, which absorbs moisture and puts extra tomato flavor into the tomato. Then there is a second tomato that takes part: ox-heart tomatoes, also from France, are skinned and dried for 24 hours as well until intensified. This is then chopped up and mixed with shallots, parmesan, smoked olive oil, gherkins and oregano. It is this mixture that is then stuffed back inside the tomato shell. Small Japanese yellow tomato berries are also used somewhere in this orchestra of flavors. It is this three-day and three-way labor of love that becomes the perfect piece of tomato on your plate. English sensibilities, indeed!

Westaway seems to not simply be after giving guests an experience. He is beyond “telling stories,” as some other top restaurants are inclined to do. The Englishman is on a quest for perfection—what is a perfect tomato, a perfect oyster, the perfect fish and chips—and it will be worth your time to be a willing victim to his mad genius.

Gallery Vask

Meanwhile, Filipinos are proud of our adopted chef Chele Gonzalez, who made it to the Asia’s 50 Best list at a commendable No. 39. It is really heartwarming to find a chef committed to the techniques of his mentors—Ferran Adria of El Bulli, Jose Mari and Elena Arzak of Arzak, Josean Alija of Nerua and Andoni Aduriz of Mugaritz—apply these techniques to Filipino food. We are all rejoicing in Gallery Vask’s win.

For a complete list of winners, visit margauxlicious.com.