GASTRONOMIC INNOVATION ..... Thai Culinary Art Goes International



  Thai cuisine has without doubt taken the world by storm, and Thai culinary art has gone international along with it. This cooking transition, or evolution, takes several different forms and reflects gastronomic innovation and collaboration on an international level.
Long gone are the days when Thai cuisine could be simply identified by carved vegetable garnishes, or a basic flavouring of fish sauce and chilli. Today's culinary auteurs have raised the benchmark — and there's no looking back!
 
  Western kitchens now commonly house Thai and Asian cooking utensils. Food columnist Cherry Ripe notes in her book Culinary Cringe that even a decade ago, some 60 per cent of Australians already had a wok, and stir fried meals were common. Celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver today tout Thai-style mortars and pestles — and not only for crushing garlic. You just don't get the right feel and texture using an electric blender. 

  Foodies today are likely to encounter excitingly new Thai creations playing old and new together. Cookbook author and restaurateur Vatcharin Bhumichitr's marriage of oysters on the half shell topped with mangosteen segments dressed with a yum (Thai salad) dressing is but one example. Pongtawat Chalermkittichai's baby back ribs with bitter chocolate and Thai spices, is yet another. There is also Neil Perry's use of traditional Thai herbs and native ingredients in cosmopolitan cuisine, or in a non-Thai setting. Furthermore, the absence of oil in Thai salad dressings (de rigueur in classic French) is showing up in lighter-style Western dishes as well. 

  There is a true international exchange occurring on the culinary level with the use of Western ingredients in traditional Thai dishes and the adaptation of traditional Thai dishes to non-Thai/Western tastes and preferences.


DEFINING THAI CUISINE
But what defines “Thai cuisine”ω Is it the flavourω The techniqueω Or the ingredientsω
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