Surprising delights

       If you like the idea of gourmet cooking that's imaginative and excitingly tasty,there's a promotion in Bangkok next week you won't want to miss.
       Brian McKenna,Irish-born wunderkind who began his cooking career at the age of 14, will next week take charge of the kitchen at the Grand Millennium Sukhumvit Hotel's Terra Roku restaurant from September 17-19- a three-day festival that we can safely say will be unique in Bangkok.
       Brian McKenna has worked in many of the UK's Michelin-starred restaurants including the one-star Le Poussin in the New Forest, Southern England, and the celebrated Gavroche three-star restaurant in Mayfair.
       More recently, he has been creating a culinary stir at Beijing's fashionable Blu Lobster, receiving accolades from local foodies and commentators who've been calling him Beijing's most famous/most original chef.
       There were, it must be said, one or two voices of dissent, because originality is not such a great virtue in everyone's book. A few diners who expected more traditional offerings and were unprepared for Brian's cooking style made their views known in the comment columns of the local gourmet magazines.
       This may well be because of the way he has taken to the developments in molecular gastronomy, which, in recent years has inspired chefs around the world.It's not simply the latest cooking fad and you don't have to be young and trendy to get it; it arose from the understanding that, as well as an art, cooking is a science.
       Cooking causes molecular changes in food. Different cooking methods and combinations of ingredients can improve flavours and transform textures, often unexpectedly. For example, by spraying neat gin onto to a cube of tonic water jelly and lemon sorbet, Brian makes an excellent gin and tonic you can eat.
       Many of the developments developed by molecular gastronomy like foams,emulsions, frozen air and lowtemperature slow-cooking have now been endorsed by mainstream chefs.
       The most famous names associated with molecular gastronomy are those of Ferran Adria, whose El Bulli restaurant in Catalonia is regularly voted "world's best restaurant"; while Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant on the River Thames is often the runner-up.
       Ferran Adria has said that he likes food that will surprise and delight his customers, and Brian McKenna's menu at the Grand Millennium Sukhumvit is sure to do that. His choice of interpretations is by no means extreme, and anyone who enjoys Thai food will be familiar with the pleasures of bringing many different taste sensations together in one dish.
       The dinner menu starts with watermelon gazpacho, foie gras with caramelised rice, and oyster with passion fruit, to be followed by seasonal leaves and vegetables in a salad of 42 ingredients (count them!) with hazelnut mayonnaise,chardonnay jelly and egg slow-cooked at 55 degrees.
       The main courses are a Thai-spiced crab risotto with avocado ice cream,tempura of claw and lemongrass bubbles.The fish course is sauteed black cod with cauliflower puree, Moroccan spiced sugar and granny smith apple; and the meat course is beef, slow-cooked at 60 degrees, with spinach parmesan and egg ravioli, fondant potato and red wine sauce.
       Desserts begin with seasonal Thai fruit with champagne jelly, passion fruit curd and watermelon foam, followed by pineapple and mango ravioli with Sichuan pepper ice cream, garden flowers and Thai coconut soup.
       The meal ends with coffee and sweets:a peanut butter "hamburger", wasabi and black sesame truffle, chocolate tart,and strawberry with celery.
       Chef Brian McKenna presents his exclusive eight-course tasting menu at the Grand Millennium Sukhumvit Hotel's Terra Roku restaurant from September 17 to 19. The price is 2,500 baht per person. Advance booking is highly recommended. For more information and reservations, please call 02-204-4165 or email fb@grandmillenniumskv.com.