Chef Chat Mingkwan is the author of numerous books, including his newest one, Asian Fusion. Chat of Unusual Touch conducts both hands-on and demonstration cooking lessons in a variety of subjects as an individual workshop or a series of classes. We caught-up with Chat to find out more about his traveling and how it influences his cooking.
Did working with your aunt in the kitchen as a child influence your decision to become a chef?
Definitely! When it came to food, my aunt was a people pleaser and I’ve taken after her since I was young. I always enjoyed the expressions on people’s faces when they taste delicious food, especially my food, and then their praises. Who wouldn’t like the praises? I was able to please my toughest critic, my aunt, who in turn nourished me with her praises. Scrumptious food and seeking praises made me become a chef.
Did growing up in Thailand and then being an apprentice in France influence the recipes you created? How did you tie these two cultures together in your cooking?
Yes. For me, Thai and French cooking have a similar concept in term of developing complex tastes and flavors. They both utilize many sorts of ingredients in one dish, especially herbs and spices, and make them harmonized, resulting in a well balance and complex flavor dish. Thai cooking has intense and tasty flavors distinctively from using a lot of tropical Thai herbs and spices while French has rich and flavorful tastes, especially their sauces from the reduction method and intensifying the tastes. Either way, they achieve the delicious, complex tastes and flavors.
For my Fusion cooking, I always combine the best of Thai with the best of French and offer the best-of-both-world dishes, such as Thai basil and lemongrass in French soups or French caramel in Thai desserts. Many French cooking techniques have been adapted in my Thai cooking to the convenience in our westernized kitchen.
What’s been the most difficult thing you have learned in mastering the skills of Thai cooking?
Good food comes in many levels, depending on the geographical areas, where the same Thai dish from different regions tastes in different levels of better or worse according to the locals. It is also depends on the food savvy (sophistication) of the taster, who can discern the good food on the streets from one in the successful restaurants. And finally, but sometimes not necessary, depending on the price, when top levels of good food demand more compensation from their customers.
My most difficult thing is to adjust my food to fit my client’s tastes, either in the urban or suburban, to the food savvy folks or plain Joe, or for those with tight budgets or all out extravaganza.
How will the new book, “Asian Fusion” differ from your previous books?
Asian Fusion is a collection of popular recipes from all Asian cuisines, starting with big Asian country cuisines of India and China, on the left side of Asia map through Central and then South Asia, on the right side of the map, and then Southeast Asia and all the way to the Philippines. Each country has its own chapter in the book including popular signature dishes. My two previous vegan cookbooks, each dealt with a specific cuisine: one is Buddha’s Table, Thai Vegetarian, and the other is Vietnamese Fusion, Vegetarian Cuisine.
In your cooking classes what have you encouraged your students to do that would differentiate the approach of your colleagues?
After my students are familiar with the cuisine ingredients and simple techniques, I often encourage them to add their personality to their food, making them distinctively different from the other and from mine. Expressing oneself in cooking is easily done by adding more or less ingredients, especially seasonings, herbs, and spices, according to one’s personal preference.
Taste, especially in food, is very subjective, and coming up with the taste that the majority of people like is key to a good cook. By adding personalities and variations of ingredients to their food, my students can experience what make good tastes, feel the connections and take ownership of their food, and finally enjoy cooking enormously.
Is your frequent travel to Southeast Asia to keep you current in the region’s trends?
Yes. Traveling is my second favorite behind the food. I will get a travel itch if I’ve stayed put for too long. Traveling is like a new drug to rejuvenate me and make me excited about the thing I love most–food. And when I’m excited, I want to know what’s happening, what’s changing, and what the local chefs have done to their cuisines. So I often travel to Southeast Asia and enjoy two of my most favorites at the same time–food and travel.
What have you noticed in Southeast Asian vegetarian/vegan cuisine that may not translate in the U.S.?
There are some refined products, mostly seasonings and condiments that add distinctive and unique flavors to each Southeast Asian cuisine. They have been used indispensably in the cuisine as a flavor enhancer and to make a dish distinctive. And some of these products, readymade in the bottles or jars, have been used traditionally for generations without clear understanding of what it is made of. For most people, to make a Southeast Asian Vegetarian/vegan dish is to omit meats, such as pieces of chicken that is apparently obvious from the dish and add pieces of tofu instead, but the ingredients that are not so obvious still being used traditionally as a flavor enhancer and to make distinctively the dish. In Southeast Asia when the food is served without obvious pieces of meat, we often eat it as Vegetarian/vegan and ignore the unknown origin of its seasonings and condiments. In the U.S., these seasonings and condiments have been scrutinized and most of them failed to meet the U.S. standard of Vegetarian/vegan cuisine. So the same dish cooked in an untraditional way in the U.S. tastes no longer distinctive and completely missing what makes the dish. Until the Vegetarian/vegan version of these seasonings and condiments are discovered, which some of them have already succeeded, Southeast Asian Vegetarian/vegan continues to taste the same without a variety of distinctive flavors from different cuisines, as if one same boring dish but have many names in different languages.
What advice can you offer to those who may be apprehensive to cooking Thai and Southeast Asian food?
I always say that cooking Thai and Southeast Asian food is not difficult at all. First step is to familiarize yourself with the cuisine ingredients, either herbs such as lemongrass, galangal, or kaffir lime in Thai cuisine or seasonings such as ketchup manis or jaggery in Indonesian cuisine. It is easy as 123: 1-learning to recognize them, 2-where to find them, and 3-how to use them, which most of the time adding into the food. Techniques of cooking Thai and Southeast Asian food are also simple and easy, mostly using common sense that often being adapted into the westernized kitchen, either stir-frying, steaming, or deep-frying. If you know how to fry eggs and boil potatoes, you are not too far off from using your techniques in cooking Thai and Southeast Asian food.