Bangkok--24 Apr--Bed-buzz
“I am amazed and inspired by the local produce available in Thailand now, so many great people doing great stuff. Forget imports. Buy local!”
tweeted by Jess Barnes March 30th.
“This local thing is hurting my brain”
tweeted by Jess Barnes March 24th.
Dinner in the dark? Almost. It was Earth Hour, the worldwide event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature. To mark this global event, Bed Supperclub and Siam Winery featured guest Chef Jess Barnes for the locavore wine pairing dinner on Saturday March 31st, 2012.
This environmental call to action, highlighted with the 1 hour lights off stint at 8:30 p.m., had considerable support by most Bangkok venues. And this year, Bed invited Australian Chef Jess Barnes (of the up and coming Bangkok eatery “Quince Eatery & Bar”) to conduct this dinner experience with a locavore menu, where ingredients were sourced within a radius of 100 miles around.
Devising this ‘green’ menu took a process of about 3 weeks prior to the event. But for Jess Barnes, a Chef whose curiosity and passion has lead him to source quality local products more often than not, that’s just part of the job.
On the night of Earth Hour, the atmosphere (excuse the pun) was electric with a full house in the restaurant. At 8.30 p.m. sharp lights were switched off and candles were lit; turning the restaurant’s ambience to one of romance. Two thai musicians started playing violin and ukulele whilst Jess started plating up the first course in the kitchen.
Dinner began with a buffalo milk soup, compressed tomato jalape?o ash and green sauce. The milk was from Murrah Buffalo farms, a local mozzarella producer. The soup, a liquid version of an insalata caprese, was served at room temperature to compliment the energy conservation theme. Incidentally this was perfect timing because when the lights came back at 9.30 p.m. Jess continued plating in the kitchen (a prep style that the Bed kitchen crew had not been accustomed to, as they usually prepare one plate at a time before expediting into the dining room.)
The second course was an organic chicken terrine with sweet and sour onions and a carrot custard. Again this dish was served at room temperature intentionally to support of the evening. The main course was a beef rib from Kasetsart University accompanied by potato hash. Guests were also served with a generous garnish of eggplants and labne in a separate dish to share. Finally the dessert: a fig from Kanchanaburi with goats cheese mousse and basil ice. The cheese came from Daisy and Lulu’s Goat cheese farm, a producer based in Pattaya.
Jess Barnes gave an overall great performance that demanded a lot of involvement from all the suppliers, but also from people who had a role in the purchasing process. To go that extra mile in finding the right ingredients (and in our case, the natural bounty of Thailand) and to not fall into the traps of what’s easy by selecting just any old available produce because of it’s popularity or origin, is making a choice in the right direction. Jess’ philosophy is that if it is available in the vicinity and not processed it is naturally fresher and tastes better.
Bed Supperclub regularly hosts locavore menus and will continue to support sustainable practices whilst delivering great value to all their guests.