BANGKOK, June 29 — There are good restaurants and there are great restaurants. Then there are those that are awarded the highly sought after Michelin stars.
So what’s the secret behind running a Michelin-starred kitchen?
As I ponder this question, I can’t help but recall an outstanding meal I had earlier this year at Mezzaluna, the highest restaurant in Bangkok.
Located on the 65th floor of the State Tower, the two Michelin-starred restaurant offers some spectacular views of the Chao Phraya River. But beyond the views and its warm and classy dining room, what matters is the food.
Led by Chef Ryuki Kawasaki, Mezzaluna delivers on that note and in spades. From Breton blue lobster delicately perfumed by Japanese shungiku and smoked Morteau sausage to Koshihikari rice transformed into a trio of desserts scented with Corsican clementines, there is creativity here and there is daring.
Ah, but many restaurants and their chefs exhibit creativity and daring yet boast no stars. We turn to Mezzaluna’s chef de cuisine for further insight.
Growing up in Niigata City in Japan, Kawasaki first studied European cuisine at Tuji Culinary institute in Tokyo (and then France) when he was 18.
He recalls, “I ended up receiving the award for the 'best student of the year’ then I got opportunity to work in Restaurant Paul Bocuse in Lyon. Later, I returned to Tokyo and worked at Restaurant Taillevent Robuchon for five years.”
Kawasaki then continued building his résumé while globe-trotting — moving from Paris to London then Las Vegas, rising to the level of chef de cuisine and collecting a “Best Chef of the Year” accolade by Dessert Companion and Escoffier Society in 2014 along the way.
In 2015, Kawasaki moved to Bangkok to spearhead Mezzaluna, where he runs a tight ship.
From the well-organised and pristine mise en place at every station in the kitchen to the impeccable plating at the pass before every dish goes out to the tables, nothing is left to chance.
His touch is on everything: even the wine pairing is based on the chef’s personal selection.
This level of perfectionism is in part due to his rigorous French training, but also carried forward from his younger days.
He shares, “I started to cook in my home kitchen with my mother and my grandmother. What started as a daily chore of simply helping them turned into a passion. Cooking or rather, creating food, became second nature to me.”
Kawasaki’s Japanese heritage and deep knowledge of Japanese ingredients has become a driving force behind his menus at Mezzaluna (described as obliquely as “innovative European cuisine”).
He says, “It’s what makes my cuisine unique and special. I’m inspired to use seasonal Japanese ingredients and to cook with French techniques — or even the opposite.”
While Kawasaki had worked with Joël Robuchon and Paul Bocuse, it’s his time with Chef Pierre Gagnaire that has impacted him the most.
During this particular tenure, Chef Pascal Sanchez, the former chef de cuisine at Twist by Pierre Gagnaire (and at Sketch, Gagnaire’s London restaurant before that) was a major touchstone, a guiding light in the challenging world of fine cuisine.
“Chef Pascal Sanchez discovered my talent and gave me many opportunities,” says Kawasaki.
He credits Sanchez, one of many mentors he has found along the way, as helping him grow into the chef and leader he is today.
His two Michelin stars didn’t appear overnight; behind every master like Kawasaki are other masters who have shown him the ropes.
Kawasaki took over the kitchen at Twist by Pierre Gagnaire when Sanchez left to open his own restaurant in the south of France; a passing of the torch.
Sanchez’s influence on Kawasaki is evident: the former lauds the graceful amalgamation of art and food. Organic and seasonal ingredients are prized – sounds familiar?
Today, Kawasaki brings his fervour for food – fine French techniques coupled with a profound understanding of his home country’s natural bounty – to Bangkok.
When asked what excites him about the Thai capital, be it flavours or ingredients, Kawasaki gives a characteristically succinct reply: “I can find almost everything. Almost everything is here.”
Certainly the dynamism of the fast life in Bangkok has even elevated his craft. There is an undeniable lift to dishes such as his Dutch veal sweetbread glazed in caramelized veal jus.
Cooked au meuniere (dredged in flour), it’s garnished with fried shiitake mushrooms and ginger, and finished with pickled Kyoto carrots. The execution is flawless, as is its elegant conception.
Kawasaki isn’t afraid of going a little exotic (though never too far out there). Yezo Shika deer from Hokkaido is encrusted with blackcurrants and juniper berries, and perked up by a compote of sautéed lotus flowers and braised red cabbage. Who says venison has to be predictable?
This sense of subtle surprise is entirely intentional, designed to interweave what is purely edible and what its story might be — the provenance of what is presented before diners on their plates.
Kawasaki explains, “My dishes are changing every season and every year. But all my dishes are inspired by seasonal products, and created with Japanese and French ingredients or techniques.”
Every element of Kawasaki’s approach comes together in one of my favourites from his recent tasting menu: a slow-cooked madara (Pacific cod) marinated in sake kasu and served with shirako “custard.”
Squid ink crispy rice and a velvety veloute made from bok choy and spinach completes the dish.
Sake kasu are lees left over from the production of sake and has a fruity, sweet flavour. Shirako (literally “white children” in Japanese) is the cooked cod milt — basically fish sperm sacs — which has a fragile, creamy texture, not unlike custard.
A classic Japanese delicacy yet when paired with sautéed bok choy stems, baby squid and chorizo, there is a depth of new flavours and breadth of adventure that is quite dazzling.
We note that sake kasu is traditionally used as a pickling agent in Japan; one method is to turn it into amazake which is used to flavour dishes and also as a marinade as it’s employed here.
It makes sense that Kawasaki would use it in this manner; one of the tenets of how he runs a professional kitchen is in eschewing overly fussy molecular gastronomy in favour of old-school culinary processes such as pickling, smoking and curing on-site.
There is no magic to creating all of this, as Kawasaki would be the first to tell you. Nothing is more key than discipline, doing the same thing day in and day out.
A typical day look for the chef is reassuringly familiar: “I wake up and prepare to send my kids to school. Then I watch the news, take a shower and go to work.”
In a competitive industry where chefs have been known to agonise over gaining or losing a single Michelin star, Kawasaki considers fear of foundering to be self-defeating.
He says, “Everyone fails. It does not go well from the beginning. The important thing is to think carefully and try again and again to get it going well.”
And that’s the truth behind a well-polished, Michelin-starred restaurant: There’s no secret recipe or great mystery.
Just a lot of hard work, plenty of perseverance, standing on the shoulders of giants — be it mothers and grandmothers presiding over a humble home kitchen or professional mentors who are only to happy to guide those with talent and tenacity — and getting up again every time one falls down.
That’s the way to run an award-winning kitchen. That’s the way to live a good life.
Mezzaluna
65th Floor, lebua at State Tower, 1055 Silom Road, Bangrak, Bangkok, Thailand
Open Tue-Sun 6pm-1am
Tel: +66 2624 9555
