Restaurant News

 Twitter, Facebook, the blogosphere is abuzz with news of a scathing review of top chef Neil Perry's Rockpool Bar & Grill in Perth.
Titled :  "your $326 dinner was the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten' our reviewer minces no words:
" From the moment I stepped through your ten-foot-high Japanese-influenced doors and into your airline hangar dining hall, the experience was the most joyless I have ever had involving food. I’m not just talking about the high end stuff. I’m talking about $8.50 kebabs ordered by the roadside at three in the morning after nights out with the lads. I’m talking about failed experiments cooking alone when too drunk to go to the shops. I’m talking about childhood stand-offs with parents ending with me blocking my nose, scarfing the turnip and running from the table crying. Your food was worse, Rockpool Bar and Grill Perth. And you charged me $326."
The blog is authored by someone called  scheissenbedauern ( pictured in his 'selfie')who apparently lives in Brisbane and even that fine city has rankled the poor chap as he explains:
"I recently visited Brisbane for the first time. I never wanted to see Brisbane but got sent for work. I spent the first hour walking around thinking, it’s true, Brisbane sucks. I even wrote some text messages to people. “In Brisbane. It’s everything I expected.”

Read  scheissenbedauern's jottings here. You may also like his other pieces including his lament about supermodel Megan Gale who apparently blocked him on Twitter.
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 In 2010 the Shuttle reported on a ripple of outrage that had run through the Bangkok establishment with the arrival of Australian chef David Thompson  ( pictured above second right) and his Nahm restaurant. "Coals to Newcastle" was the theme, but Thompson has succeeded brilliantly and won over his critics.
Nahm has been named not just in the Best 50 Asian restaurants in the world but is now Number One !
Well we told you so having eaten Thompson's supperb Thai food many times. But don't take our word for it : not only is Thompson Tom Cruise's favourite chef but he also creates banquets for the Thai Royal Family.

Foodies Unleashed

Bianca Venuti-Hughes and her mom, the larger than life songstress Maria Venuti (right) love their food. And with an Italian heritage- Maria was born in Sicily- so they should. In fact the pair have just hosted a tour of Aussie travellers around the magical island of Sicily on a foodies discovery tour.

Bianca has now launched a new website : foodgasms.com.au as they bring us the latest on culinary delights  Currently the pair are checking out Thailand and have an exclusive menu on the site from one of the world's most celebrated Thai chefs. Aussie David Thompson who is renowned in Thailand for re-discovering exquisite ancient Thai recipes and is so respected that he is regularly called upon to organise official banquets for the much revered and longest reigning monarch in the world Bhumibol Adulyadej, the King of Thailand.
It's a tough job but someone has to do it !

Foodies at Ten Paces !

It's brewing up to be a scandal of major proportions and has been reported in the New York Times.

Acclaimed Australian chef David Thompson has had the temerity to open a restaurant in Bangkok and fellow foodies are not happy.

Thompson has been visiting Thailand for 25 years and has finally sealed his love affair with the country by opening a local branch of his hugely successful Nahm Restaurant.
This year his London eatery of the same name was the first ever Thai food outlet to receive a much coveted Michelin star.

Thai food writer Suthon Sukphasit reckons Thompson is "slapping the face of Thai people"-an odd comment that somewhat goes against the grain of the Land of Smiles legendary hospitality towards visitors and 'farangs' who settle in the country.

US born writer, the corpulent Bob Halliday who has lived in Thailand for a few decades sniffs
“When someone comes along and presents himself as the spokesman of Thai cuisine it’s like Osama Bin Laden going to the Vatican and saying he is the high authority on Catholicism".

Nahm in London
Another bizarre comment from a writer who err...presents himself as a spokesman on Thai food with his internet site Aw Taw aw Market (don't click the link-it takes you to a Thai betting site).

tSS thinks they protest too much and can't handle the competition.

Thompson has now published two well received books Thai Food and Thai Street Food which is regarded as the definitive recipe book on Siam eating. His second book was sold out within 2 weeks of being released.

Sydneysiders will remember Thompson's superb Darley Street Thai restaurant in Kings Cross in the 90's. It was Tom Cruise and Nicolle Kidman's home away from home.

However according to Pongtawat Chalermkittichai, the first Thai national to become Executive Chef at the 5 star Four Seasons Hotel in Bangkok-Thompson is a master of Asian cooking and he says his '"mouth salivates at the thought of David's dishes".

Bob Halliday(right)

Pongtawat Chalermkittichai who is a world-wide consultant for Asian food and has opened the successful Kittichai Restaurant in Manhattan reckons he can learn much from Thompson. He plans to open a new eatery in Bangkok early next year and he hopes Nahm and his establishment "complement each other".

Perhaps the last word should go to someone who knows.
In a country that reveres it's Royal Family, not only is David Thompson a consultant for the Thailand's premier food cooking school, the prestigious Suan Dusit College in Bangkok on the preservation of Thai culinary heritage, he also oversees state banquets for the longest reigning monarch in the world, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama IX of Thailand.