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[title]With one foot firmly planted in the classic French techniques, Chef Roxanne Lange at The Allium lets loose of the other and has her culinary whims and passion for flowers and herbs take over to create an array of delectable dishes prepared with the finest European ingredients and locally grown organic produce.
Chef Roxanne lets us in on her creative culinary world filled with flowers, homegrown herbs and sustainable produce, plus the reveal of the restaurant’s first set lunch offer.
Sereechai Puttes/Time Out Bangkok
How did it all start?
I always cooked with my mother at home in Rotterdam, and as a child, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. But I didn’t really know if I’d wanted to make a career out of it. Then one summer, when I was 14, my mother suggested I help out at her friend’s restaurant to see how I would like it. I loved cooking ever since and it’s the only thing I wanted to do. So, I went to train in classic French cuisine in a culinary school and got to train at different restaurants every year, and I learned a lot. I love cooking because I like to work with my hands, to be creative and to design something.
What kind of food scene did you grow up in?
Dutch food is very simple. We eat a lot of meat, cheese, potatoes and vegetables, which we have to be creative about due to seasonal availability. And that’s good for me to learn and to work my way around certain ingredients when I later became a chef, especially now that plant-based cooking and vegetables are big trends.
And how did you end up here in Bangkok?
After I finished from the culinary school, I worked with Henk Savelberg at his restaurant, Savelberg, in Voorburg for two years as a sous chef. Around that time, he was planning to expand to Bangkok, to have a Savelberg here, and asked me to join the team as chef de cuisine. I didn’t want to move here at first, thinking Thailand was so far away from my home and my family [laughs]. Long story short, I arrived in Bangkok five years ago and never left since, enjoying it here very much. I even have a tattoo of a lotus on my arm, because I love flowers and I want something to remember my time in Thailand by.
Sereechai Puttes/Time Out Bangkok
Tell us about The Allium.
This space used to be a restaurant called Reflexions for a long time. With The Allium, we aim to offer modern French cuisine where the dishes are prepared with basic French techniques and then complemented with other elements. These elements are actually whatever I feel like, so the food here is very creative. It’s still French at the core, but with a lighter touch and healthier ingredients, for example, I would replace the heavy, creamy sauce with broth or foam. Thailand is a warm country, and I think people would appreciate French dishes that are lighter but also still sophisticated and refined.
Allium is a genus of flowering plants that include hundreds of species, from onion, to shallot, leek, chive and scallion. The name Allium is fitting to our concept and approach, because as a French restaurant, we use a lot of onions and those aromatic plants as base for sauces. And personally, I love to cook with flowers.
What kinds of herbs and flowers do you work with?
A lot! We have a supplier that provides us with edible organic flowers, and they send different kinds of flowers to me every month and I have so much fun playing around with them. What I like the most so far is micro star flowers, a local flower that comes in various colors. If I was in the Netherlands, I’d use a lot of violets.
For herbs, some we get from suppliers and some we plant ourselves on the balcony right here at the restaurant. We have onion flowers, rosemary, dill, thyme and some small edible flowers. My most favorite herb is tarragon. I think it goes so well with fennel. As for the protein, we source the seafood mainly from Thailand, and we’re using a lot of mud crab and snapper which I really like. Other meat and duck liver we import from sustainable, organic farmers.
Is the sustainability approach something challenging to maintain in a fine dining restaurant?
Sustainability is a super trend, which I hope will stick for a long, long because it’s a great way to cook and consume food. For me it could be challenging, but it’s not always the case as it depends on your cooking style, type of cuisine and where you are. Anyhow, I’ve had some difficulties. For example, with red snappers, the supplier can’t guarantee the same quality every time and sometimes I had to send them back. But I see a lot of improvement in that, especially with vegetables, and it has become much easier than before. You have to be creative.
Here at The Allium we change a few dishes almost every month so that the repeating guests can try something new. It’s not really seasonal, because the seasons in Thailand are not that distinctive, and we also try to be sustainable. Coming up for the next round you’ll get cured salmon trout with champagne, salmon roe and fennel and a truffle dish with Korat wagyu beef.
Starting 18 February, The Allium will also start serving lunch. What does the menu look like?
It’s going to be the same as the dinner menu, but the portion will be bigger as you’d have only two or three courses for lunch. There’ll be five starters, five main courses and four desserts to choose for a two-course or three-course lunch, starting from 650++ baht. My personal favorites would be the seabass dish with truffle and the ocean trout. I love fish!
The prices are amazing. How do you keep it affordable here?
It’s not really difficult, but there are some challenges which are OK. If you don’t strive or do things differently, you don’t learn. You just need to be creative about it. Besides the affordability, The Allium also offers very fresh ingredients, modern detailed cooking techniques, balanced and tasteful dishes and great service. And we’re now open for lunch and dinner for you to come and experience The Allium at your convenience.
Sereechai Puttes/Time Out Bangkok
The set lunch is served daily from 12pm to 2.30pm from THB 650++ for two courses and THB 750++ for three courses at The Allium, Level 3, The Athenee Hotel.