It's odd how we ascribe value these days. We're happy to spend several hundred baht daily for a couple of coffees and a stale bun, but baulk at rewarding a musician's soulful outpourings by actually paying the same amount for an album. Food, however, in its stubborn refusal to be digitised, has avoided devaluation and Bangkokians are seeking ever higher and more expensive culinary experiences. Michelin-trained chefs used to be enough but now we crave an actual multi-Michelin-star celebrity in the kitchen. Decadent treats like foie gras perennially pop up on every festive menu whether people actually enjoy them or not. But this month Centara Grand at CentralWorld has trumped them all with its truffle menu.
There are rare meals that change the way you think about food. Prior to dining at Centara Grand's Red Sky restaurant I hadn't realised that there are just two distinct types of food. I'm used to classifying food by country or regional cooking style, or maybe classic versus fusion dishes. But now, food is broken down into two mutually exclusive groups. There are the meals that I used to enjoy, now relegated to mere fuel. And there are dishes that have truffles in.
Périgord black truffles are second in desirability to only the even more ludicrously-priced white truffle. Sourced from the south of France, these curious tubers are found mostly under the soil surrounding the oak tree and you wouldn't find them without the help of a trained dog or pig - the truffle hounds and truffle hogs.
So, given that they are difficult to find and therefore extremely expensive to buy, you'd think that in these austere times a chef would use them sparingly. Not Hugo Coudurier, chef de cuisine at the Centara Grand at CentralWorld. His menu for their rooftop Fifty Five and Red Sky restaurants features them tossed, cooked and shaved liberally throughout a special five-course set.
The meal begins with a winter mâche salad of poached egg, sunchoke puree and a single toast soldier guarding the shavings of fresh truffle. Chef's advice is to mix it up, and also recommends that the Asian preference for fried egg is relaxed just for this dish. And it should be; this was, with no exaggeration, the finest poached egg dish I have ever tasted. The truffle mixed with the smooth egg elevates the dish from a simple salad to something beyond: a place from which all non-truffle foods now seem like bland mouthfill.
Next up is artichoke and black truffle soup, over which the chef will shave slivers of truffle from a fist-sized lump. As your mind boggles at the probable price of the whole handful, the shaving releases the unique and intense aromas for which the Périgord specimens are famed. Like a movie flashback, the smell whisks you to the forests and groves of southern Europe as your hounds dig through the soil and discover that mushroomy, earthy and sensuous olfactory hit.
The mains are oven roasted turbot in black truffle mousseline and dry aged Wagyu strip loin in clove and black truffle bouillon. The Wagyu dish is not messing around; this is a serious main with a powerful richness that almost overwhelms but is reined in expertly by the chef.
The final round is a square chocolate and hazelnut presents as the winter painting; a canvas of sweetness which is truffle-free to serve as a parachute easing your return to an Earth of basic, non-fungi enhanced foods. The whole shebang comes in at 6,555B++ per person or you can pick and choose a la carte-style any evening from now until the end of January.
While I now lament the lack of truffles in my daily existence, this is still the season for spoiling oneself, so before a 2015 of quotidian fare you should bid adieu to 2014 with the Centara Grand New Year celebrations. Ideally situated in the heart of countdown madness - but even more ideally 55 floors above it - Fifty Five and Red Sky restaurants boot mediocrity off the roof and invite excess to the table.
There's plenty going on during New Year's Eve at each level of their impressive three-story wine display. The lower level, at Fifty Five Restaurant, goes with a deluxe buffet and free flow champers at 8,555B++ a head. Up a level and outdoors at Red Sky there's a 7-course feast peppered with luxury touches like Oscietra caviar, more truffles, Wagyu steak and astonishing rooftop views. Each couple gets a bottle of Mumm bubbly thrown in for free, and the whole thing comes in at 15,555B++ per person.
For all diners and those unlucky enough to dine elsewhere, there's a countdown throwdown at the Red Sky Bar where a DJ will compete with the booms and bangs of the midnight fireworks. There's no reason why the last night of the year shouldn't be the best.
For information or reservations, please contact 02 100 6255 or email at diningcgcw@chr.co.th
FIFTY-FIVE Centara Grand at CentralWorld. 999/99 Rama 1 Road.
