Issue 33

If you thought that Thai rice is just a staple, think again. Horizon Thailand talks to a bakery chef about his inspiration to use Thai rice in his sweet creations.

“Rice has always been the staple food of the Thai people, and it … is at the essence of Thai life,” says Manop Bunnak, or ‘Chef Ken’. However, the bakery chef of The Artpiece, Bangkok believes that rice has a sweet potential beyond its traditional filling role.

According to Chef Ken, creating a special cake requires more than simply following a recipe. “It’s not just mixing flour, eggs, butter and milk together,” he says. “Knowing the ingredients is most important. To adapt Thai rice into bakery, we should know its characteristic and properties. For example, our Thai rice has a sweet taste and fragrance while Japanese rice is salty and sticky.”

After quitting his job as an Art Director for an advertising company, Chef Ken went to Le Cordon Bleu culinary art school in Tokyo to discover how to bake.

“I learned not only the ingredients and how to make a good cake, but … how the Japanese put their culture in their cake, and how everyone can recognise its uniqueness. I just wanted to know how they adapt the Western cake to be their own style,” he says.

He uses Thai Hom Mali rice, rice berry, Hom Nin rice, black sticky rice and brown rice milk in his cakes. “Now we have three different styles of cakes – a Mont Blanc with black sticky rice and chestnut, a brownie with Hom Nin rice, and black sticky rice with chocolate,” he says. “The taste and texture of the rice creates the uniqueness of each piece.”

Chef Ken believes that it is the responsibility of all Thais to realise the potential of their key grain. “It should start from the Thai people ourselves,” he says. “We should believe that our Thai rice has various possibilities on the global market. What we need to focus more on, is creativity and technique.”

In the future, Chef Ken hopes to educate the Thai people about their rice.

“My plan is to have a class teaching the basic knowledge of the ingredients, the way of thinking when you plan to make your cake, how to decorate, how to adapt the recipe from the ingredients you have,” he says. “Making cake is like bringing art and culinary skills together. I just want to encourage all food designers, restaurants, chefs or anyone who is interested in food to use their creativity.”

Words by Natthinee Ratanapradsidhi