Le Du’s head chef on opening Niras in K11 Musea, Hong Kong: Thitid ‘Ton’ Tassanakajohn, behind Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants’ No 1 ranking, chats authentic recipes and the diversity of Thai food
- Arguably the most important Thai chef today, Thitid ‘Ton’ Tassanakajohn is behind Bangkok’s Le Du and Nusara, which both rank on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list – at No 1 and No 3, respectively
- The acclaimed chef opens his first overseas restaurant, Niras, in K11 Musea, Hong Kong, promising an ‘upscale, yet approachable’ style of Thai cooking
Thitid “Ton” Tassanakajohn might arguably be the most important Thai chef of his generation. Frustrated by the conservatism that surrounded traditional Thai cooking, he transformed it, bringing it off the streets and unleashing its potential in his restaurants, which are now considered some of the finest in the world.
In town to supervise the opening of Niras this month, chef Ton sat down with us to speak about his culinary philosophy, the soul of Thai food and why he hates cooking at home.
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I worked in a bank for a short period and I absolutely hated it. I didn’t like sitting in an office and doing all the numbers and stuff. I got into cooking because I had a job in a kitchen one summer when I was in the US and I loved the three or four months I spent there. It was the happiest time in my life.
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I went to New York to see how they elevated their cuisine. In the US, their history of cooking isn’t that long but they’ve managed to raise it to a very high level. In Thailand, you couldn’t change authentic recipes. And if you used local ingredients people would tell you you can’t charge that much for such food.
Each of my restaurants is very different. It takes time, but they each find their own identity. I think the same will happen for Niras as well. Two of my best chefs will work here. The kitchen will be lead by Mai [Naruemon Ratiphuthilap]. She is like my right hand and she knows everything. I think this is a good opportunity for her to develop her own style of cooking as well.
Seasonal and local ingredients are very important. Of course, sometimes we still need to import some of our ingredients from Thailand because Hong Kong doesn’t have everything we have in Thailand. But I’ve asked some chef friends to connect me with local fishermen and hopefully we can apply local touches to all the dishes here.
We have to import some of the ingredients ourselves. Stuff like spices from the north [of Thailand], even the rice, which is quite different here. We want to maintain the true Thai flavours as much as we can.
The uniqueness of Thai food is the combination of all the flavours – spicy, sour, salty and everything else in between. Then it’s about how we put it all together, how we harmonise it. This is something I think Thai food does very well.
We want to showcase different aspects of Thai food as well. People think Thai food is really spicy, which is not always true. And here [at Niras] you can try a dish that’s sweet, a dish that’s sour, one that is spicy. That’s what we want to do. We want to showcase the subtleties of Thai food in as many different ways as possible.
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I hate cooking at home. It’s like you’re working all the time. I even tell my girlfriend she can’t cook when I’m at home. I don’t like to smell any food at home. I know everyone imagines that chefs like to cook at home and cook for the family. Me? I tell all my family, if you want to eat with me, come to the restaurant.
Niras, 7/F, K11 Musea, Victoria Dockside, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, 3905 3022
