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Breakfast musings of a master chef
David Thompson is the Australian-born chef at Nahm in Bangkok
WHAT will David Thompson have for breakfast? I'm interested. He is, after all, chef and culinary beacon of the newly crowned best restaurant in Asia, Nahm. Which, in turn, is possibly the highest accolade given to an Australian chef. A ranking that throws the best Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, China and Singapore — to mention only the major restaurant-going countries of Asia — can offer into the ring. And the boyish, bookish, impish 50-something from Sydney has trumped them all.
He has lived abroad, mostly in Thailand, for years. His palate is refined from years of professional cooking and living in Sydney, London and Bangkok. He’s on the cusp of his next project, in Singapore.
So, given the multicultural spread of Singapore’s Fullerton Hotel breakfast, a classic Asian hotel gastroganza that veers from sausages and beans to three kinds of congee with everything from French cheese to Indian curry and patisserie between, how does he start his day?
Coffee. Of course. Orange juice. Crisp bacon. And a kind of short, rice noodle stir-fry from one of those very fancy silver-plated bain-marie things big hotels specialise in. They’re very good.
“I find my tastes becoming more and more Asian,” he says of his breakfast. “My tongue is Thai.” Boom boom.
Among his fellow travellers of the restaurant world, Thompson’s reputation for the pursuit of sybaritic pleasure precedes him. At 53, however, he is more sanguine about success and mellower in his behaviour.
On his recent success: “I’m rather subdued about it because I think there are other restaurants who as richly deserved the award, if not more so. Luckily I’m just a bloody Australian and I don’t care … I no longer need that kind of confirmation in my life and I’ve also reached the stage of my life where I know it’s not true [that he’s the best cook in Asia].”
On other people: “I’m so much more aware and tolerant of other people, their needs and values. I think that’s one of the great things about getting older … I’m much more tolerant of other people’s opinions and welcome the more collegiate quality of the kitchen rather than being a dictatorial chef ... I’m working with some damn fine cooks whose taste I respect and whose voice and opinion I must listen to.”
On managing a team: “I had a fierce temper when I was younger and I was pretty articulate so when I lost it I drew blood. I look back on it now with a degree of shame; I think you can still accomplish what you want in a kitchen without having to scream or shout. Emotional blackmail is one way of dealing with things.”
On generation change in Australia: “You had the two grandmothers and a batty old aunty. Gay (Bilson) and Stephanie (Alexander) and Maggie (Beer). Then you have the next generation which includes me and Neil (Perry) and Stefano Manfredi in Sydney, and I often refer to Mr Perry and myself as the Margaret Fulton and Charmaine Solomon of our generation.”
On Noosa’s Food and Wine Festival: “Noosa is like schoolies for chefs … I go to Noosa because I’ve never seen such a bunch of respected chefs so ill-behaved. It’s hilarious. I like it because it still shows the maverick side of the industry as opposed to the far more professional organised behaviour that’s occurring now. ”
Source: The Australian - 15 March 2014
