Saawaan stands out among the many Thai restaurants serving food with a side of gimmickry. The one-Michelin-starred restaurant is known for presenting its food in an innovative way, and now Chef Saritwat “Earth” Wanvichitkun has been introduced as the restaurant’s new head chef. The Phuket-born chef, who used to work the stoves at Mezzaluna and Nitan, is charged with churning out plates that retain Saawaan’s signature and at the same time introduce new twists and the many flavors of southern Thai cuisine.
Chef Earth proves he is up to the task with a new eight-course tasting menu, which shows off his various skills—fermenting, stir-frying, curry-making—to the fullest. The set starts with an amuse bouche of steamed fish with curry paste, served alongside deep-fried fish skin and fish sauce-seasoned rambutan. Next up is Raw, where a Jean-Paul oyster from Utah Beach in France is fermented with fish sauce, and then topped with Oxystelma flower and bitter orange.
Following closely is Fermented, one of our favorite courses. Here, Chef Earth serves river prawn from Surat Thani with homemade rice noodles and three-month-fermented mackerel. This dish best displays the fermentation technique used in the south.
In Boiled, the Le Cordon Bleu alumnus presents coconut soup with salted French Charolais beef, a dish inspired by his grandmother’s recipe. Miang comes up next, seeing four types of crabs served with four kinds of seasonal vegetables.
The next course, Charcoal, features grilled Ranong sea catfish covered with tamarind and palm sugar sauce, and served with grilled hairy eggplant and wild honey bamboo shoots. Up next is Stir-Fried, wherein Chef Earth cooks Kanchanaburi boar with his own special curry paste.
The penultimate course is a curry dish that showcases seven-day dry-aged Madame Burgaud Challans duck with a ten-chilli green curry. Rice cooked with duck stock is served on the side.
At meal’s end, pâtissière chef Arisara “Paper” Chongphanitkul chimes in with a palate cleanser and a dessert that reworks kanom chan (steamed layer cake).
Saawaan’s new eight-course dinner Saawaan is priced at B2,490++ with wine-pairing options from B850++. Call 0 2679 3775 or visit the website for more information and reservations.