Last night I went to a cooking demonstration by David Thompson, who many of
you will know as a world thai guru, and author of that wonderful pink book,
Thai Food ( http://tinyurl.com/5wmes )

Anyway, to me it was like meeting Don Bradman, such was the anticipation.
The course was in Brisbane, Australia.

We all arrived in what looked like a restaurant setting, with the cooking
table at the front. There were mirrors and TVs. About 40 were seated. David
appeared at the front. He looked like an older version of this:

http://edition.cnn.com/2000/FOOD/new...d.thompson.jpg
http://www.miettas.com/chefs/chef_im...s/thompson.jpg

He was very quiet initially, and a bit shy. He cracked a couple of weak
jokes. He got embarrassed when the presenter told his story, including when
he was asked by the thai govt. to help train their chefs up. He left the
room.

When it was over he came back. I didn't think he would be able to cook for
40 people in a few hours, because I know how hard it is to even cook nice
thai for a few people!! But he said yes it would be doing that. The food
was:

* Sour Orange Curry of Fish with Betal Leaves
* Black Fried Squid
* Mixed Veges with Fruit Salad dressed with tamarind, palm sugar and Sesame
Seeds.

Curry

He then started cooking the curry - for all 40 of us. We all had our recipes
for 4, but he obviously had worked out how to scale it up to 40, no worries.
He had a huge pestle and mortar, and started throwing in ingredients willy
nilly, pounding away back and forth with a gentle rhythmic motion. He spoke
of how thai mother in laws judge potential in-laws by the way they make
their curry paste.

He told us how to soak the dried chillies for an hour in salted warm to
remove the coarse, rough taste. He passed around the water so we could taste
how coarse it was. He made a bloke eat a thai chilli, and tried to make him
eat more than 5, for charity. He told the bloke not to worry if he felt as
though he was having a stroke, it was normal and just the chilli at work.

When he was putting the shrimp paste in (gapi), he called it the murky soul
of thai cooking. He pointed out it couldn't go off, as it was already off.
He said that in Thailand the shrimp paste is of a much higher quality,
unavailable in Australia, and it was quite pleasant raw. The thai apparently
just eat it with rice it is so good.

He brought his stock to the boil. He pointed out the thai often use water
instead of stock as unlike western cooks they see stock as a moisoning agent
rather than a flavouring one. That's why thai stock is so weak. He made his
tamarin water (a bloody big bowl of it), and interestingly he said it should
be 1 part water to 1 part paste! That shocked me - it's very bloody thick
water.

He passed around betal leaves so we would be able to recognise it. We all
munched on a little.

He explained this curry was peasant food - albeit delicious peasant food,
and there were no rules about what you threw in. He spotted some fresh veges
at the market he was throwing in even though they weren't on the recipe
(garlic shoots, chinese cabbage). He said no more than 2 or three veges or
things get confused. There was a lot of stock used. Of course it was to be
eaten with rice, which is what the meal is - everything else is just an
addition to rice and no meal is complete without rice. Apparently the thai
feel they haven't eaten if they haven't had rice.

He threw in fresh blue groper cut up. He just stirred it around (the paste
had been cooked in the stock).

We then got a bit to try over rice. It was good, but didn't invoke oohs and
ahhs. It was of course meant to be one dish in a meal, but he was feeding it
up as he cooked it.

Vege Dish

He then made some deep fried shallots. He passed some around he had cooked
earlier. They were delicious, and he pointed out it didn't taste anything
like what you buy in shop, made months or years before. He then spoke of
palm sugar, and again how the commercial stuff in Australia is *******ised
with cane sugar, and not as nice as the stuff in thailand, where it is a
cottage industry. He threw more herbs than you can poke a stick at in a big
bowl. I asked him to pass around the long leaf coriander as I didn't know
what it looked like and he obliged. He pointed out the lemongrass and kaffir
lime leaves should only be cut at the very last moment or you loose the
essential oils. I learnt what a star fruit was (hint, it looks like a star,
but you can eat it like fruit).

He said you could use normal beans instead of snake beans.

He passed it around, and got more ohhs and ahhs. It was a very simple,
delicious salad. And it went well with the bit of curry that was left over.
SOme poor ******* at my table got a whole birds eye chilli David threw in
for a bit of a laugh. He wasn't laughing.

Squid

This recipe is apparently from southern thailand (or "what's left of it").
He said he was so impressed with the squid he just wanted to grill it with a
simple chili dressing, which was indeed what he and his staff were going to
do after we all left. I should mention by now he had relaxed and his jokes
were getting better. He was a bit annoyed by the talking though, and
proceeded to punish us by throwing in handfuls of extra chillies in the dish
whenever someone spoke out of turn. I think he was just having a bit of fun
though, as apparently the squid ink masks the chilli heat, and indeed it
wasn't too hot at all.

He left the skin on the squid, such was its freshness. He heated up his
brass woks for a long time before using them, flames roaring - so the sides
wouldn't cool down. He said it shouldn't matter for home sizes, but he was
cooking for 40! He had 2 woks going at once, and did quite a few batches. It
was a very simple recipe, but was bloody brilliant and looked very
different, being all black from the squid ink.

All in all a very pleasant experience. David was a lovely bloke, and is no
doubt the master - including being the master at cooking for 40 people
without raising a sweat! He sounded a little tired though, and said he
didn't see himself cooking for more than about 5 years more (but don't we
all say that about everything....). He was working 12 hours a day 6 days per
week.

Still, not a bad bloody job if you ask me!

David's partner was there - a thai bloke, who looked like an older rock
star.

David finished by talking about how thai cooking is about enjoying the
moment, roping in help, and, at the end of the day, enjoying the bloody
fantastic results.

He then happily signed his book (Thai Food), which can keep you going for
years. Most of his tips were in the book.

Happy cooking.

David Downie wrote:
> Last night I went to a cooking demonstration by David Thompson, who many of
> you will know as a world thai guru, and author of that wonderful pink book,
> Thai Food ( http://tinyurl.com/5wmes )
>
> Anyway, to me it was like meeting Don Bradman, such was the anticipation.
> The course was in Brisbane, Australia.
>
> We all arrived in what looked like a restaurant setting, with the cooking
> table at the front. There were mirrors and TVs. About 40 were seated. David
> appeared at the front. He looked like an older version of this:
>
> http://edition.cnn.com/2000/FOOD/new...d.thompson.jpg
> http://www.miettas.com/chefs/chef_im...s/thompson.jpg
>
> He was very quiet initially, and a bit shy. He cracked a couple of weak
> jokes. He got embarrassed when the presenter told his story, including when
> he was asked by the thai govt. to help train their chefs up. He left the
> room.
>
> When it was over he came back. I didn't think he would be able to cook for
> 40 people in a few hours, because I know how hard it is to even cook nice
> thai for a few people!! But he said yes it would be doing that. The food
> was:
>
> * Sour Orange Curry of Fish with Betal Leaves
> * Black Fried Squid
> * Mixed Veges with Fruit Salad dressed with tamarind, palm sugar and Sesame
> Seeds.
>
> Curry
>
> He then started cooking the curry - for all 40 of us. We all had our recipes
> for 4, but he obviously had worked out how to scale it up to 40, no worries.
> He had a huge pestle and mortar, and started throwing in ingredients willy
> nilly, pounding away back and forth with a gentle rhythmic motion. He spoke
> of how thai mother in laws judge potential in-laws by the way they make
> their curry paste.
>
> He told us how to soak the dried chillies for an hour in salted warm to
> remove the coarse, rough taste. He passed around the water so we could taste
> how coarse it was. He made a bloke eat a thai chilli, and tried to make him
> eat more than 5, for charity. He told the bloke not to worry if he felt as
> though he was having a stroke, it was normal and just the chilli at work.
>
> When he was putting the shrimp paste in (gapi), he called it the murky soul
> of thai cooking. He pointed out it couldn't go off, as it was already off.
> He said that in Thailand the shrimp paste is of a much higher quality,
> unavailable in Australia, and it was quite pleasant raw. The thai apparently
> just eat it with rice it is so good.
>
> He brought his stock to the boil. He pointed out the thai often use water
> instead of stock as unlike western cooks they see stock as a moisoning agent
> rather than a flavouring one. That's why thai stock is so weak. He made his
> tamarin water (a bloody big bowl of it), and interestingly he said it should
> be 1 part water to 1 part paste! That shocked me - it's very bloody thick
> water.
>
> He passed around betal leaves so we would be able to recognise it. We all
> munched on a little.
>
> He explained this curry was peasant food - albeit delicious peasant food,
> and there were no rules about what you threw in. He spotted some fresh veges
> at the market he was throwing in even though they weren't on the recipe
> (garlic shoots, chinese cabbage). He said no more than 2 or three veges or
> things get confused. There was a lot of stock used. Of course it was to be
> eaten with rice, which is what the meal is - everything else is just an
> addition to rice and no meal is complete without rice. Apparently the thai
> feel they haven't eaten if they haven't had rice.
>
> He threw in fresh blue groper cut up. He just stirred it around (the paste
> had been cooked in the stock).
>
> We then got a bit to try over rice. It was good, but didn't invoke oohs and
> ahhs. It was of course meant to be one dish in a meal, but he was feeding it
> up as he cooked it.
>
> Vege Dish
>
> He then made some deep fried shallots. He passed some around he had cooked
> earlier. They were delicious, and he pointed out it didn't taste anything
> like what you buy in shop, made months or years before. He then spoke of
> palm sugar, and again how the commercial stuff in Australia is *******ised
> with cane sugar, and not as nice as the stuff in thailand, where it is a
> cottage industry. He threw more herbs than you can poke a stick at in a big
> bowl. I asked him to pass around the long leaf coriander as I didn't know
> what it looked like and he obliged. He pointed out the lemongrass and kaffir
> lime leaves should only be cut at the very last moment or you loose the
> essential oils. I learnt what a star fruit was (hint, it looks like a star,
> but you can eat it like fruit).
>
> He said you could use normal beans instead of snake beans.
>
> He passed it around, and got more ohhs and ahhs. It was a very simple,
> delicious salad. And it went well with the bit of curry that was left over.
> SOme poor ******* at my table got a whole birds eye chilli David threw in
> for a bit of a laugh. He wasn't laughing.
>
> Squid
>
> This recipe is apparently from southern thailand (or "what's left of it").
> He said he was so impressed with the squid he just wanted to grill it with a
> simple chili dressing, which was indeed what he and his staff were going to
> do after we all left. I should mention by now he had relaxed and his jokes
> were getting better. He was a bit annoyed by the talking though, and
> proceeded to punish us by throwing in handfuls of extra chillies in the dish
> whenever someone spoke out of turn. I think he was just having a bit of fun
> though, as apparently the squid ink masks the chilli heat, and indeed it
> wasn't too hot at all.
>
> He left the skin on the squid, such was its freshness. He heated up his
> brass woks for a long time before using them, flames roaring - so the sides
> wouldn't cool down. He said it shouldn't matter for home sizes, but he was
> cooking for 40! He had 2 woks going at once, and did quite a few batches. It
> was a very simple recipe, but was bloody brilliant and looked very
> different, being all black from the squid ink.
>
> All in all a very pleasant experience. David was a lovely bloke, and is no
> doubt the master - including being the master at cooking for 40 people
> without raising a sweat! He sounded a little tired though, and said he
> didn't see himself cooking for more than about 5 years more (but don't we
> all say that about everything....). He was working 12 hours a day 6 days per
> week.
>
> Still, not a bad bloody job if you ask me!
>
> David's partner was there - a thai bloke, who looked like an older rock
> star.
>
> David finished by talking about how thai cooking is about enjoying the
> moment, roping in help, and, at the end of the day, enjoying the bloody
> fantastic results.
>
> He then happily signed his book (Thai Food), which can keep you going for
> years. Most of his tips were in the book.
>
> Happy cooking.
>
>

Thanks for your amusing and informative report.

I agree that his weighty tome can keep us all going for a long, long time.

ian

David Downie wrote:

> Last night I went to a cooking demonstration by David Thompson, who many
> of you will know as a world thai guru, and author of that wonderful pink
> book, Thai Food ( http://tinyurl.com/5wmes )
>
> Anyway, to me it was like meeting Don Bradman, such was the anticipation.
> The course was in Brisbane, Australia.
>
<snip>

Good story.

In the 1990s, I had lunch at Thompsons 'Darley St Thai' restaurant here in
Australia. I remember he used fresh coconuts for the coconut milk & the
curry I had was excellent.

gtoomey