THAI PAVILION The New Look
Chef Ananda Solomon of the President Hotel was faced with a strange dilemma. The hotel’s popular Thai Pavilion continued to pull in clients and old faithfuls. And yet ‘evolution and innovation’ were called for before the popular eatery began to pall. The way around was to look for a more modern, contemporary and yet classic interior to complement the new menu introducing high-end Thai cuisine that included new entrants like duck liver foie gras and sea bass while retaining old favourites like the ever popular Thai curry.

Japanese designer, Noriyoshi Muramatsu, well known for his Zuma in London, was roped in. Menu presented to him, he came up with a concept of hand-crafted wooden walls, each panel depicting something out of the history of Thailand – a part of a temple, a palace, a museum, a boat transporting grain– each telling a unique story. The panels were carved in Thailand and assembled later. The ceiling was kept simple and modern with open rafters. The floors were clad in wood and an open kitchen and food bar added a touch of the modern. It took six months to execute the plan and when the restaurant reopened, the phone rang off the hook for bookings. Completely full up, it is still currently coping with a waiting list.

Trained initially in French food, Chef Solomon did not pull the Thai restaurant out of a ceremonial hat. He began researching this cuisine in 1990 after which, “I moved across the length and breadth of the country…through street cooking, cleaning stalls and pavements; home cooking, I worked as a helper cook in people’s homes; the kitchens of the royal family where I was an aid. I worked in vegetable markets and food shops. Twice a year, I would go to Thailand, learning more about the food.”

And so the menu, like the décor, is inspired by a stir-up of royalty, the earthy street side, as well as the bustle of Thai markets and produce. Add the refinement and delicacy of taste of the French and you have high cuisine in a right royal setting.