Local Flavour

At CANVAS, Chef Riley Sanders uses the vast palette of Thailand’s bountiful and seasonal produce to create visually exciting dishes that seduce the palate. gavin nazareth tries out the new tasting menu

the three platters arrayed on the gleaming copper countertop in front of us hold bite-sized hints – a roll call of sorts – of the good things that are to follow over the course of the evening.

In one, a cracker of khao taen

(puffed sticky rice) is topped with a sliver of lightly grilled plaa tuu

(mackerel), dressed in turmeric, chili and lime, and covered in dok kajon (cowslip creeper). The sublime brininess of freshly delivered Surat Thani oysters is paired with a tangy green mango sorbet, with fresh green peppercorn and crispy wild pepper leaves offering both an undercurrent of heat and texture. Sunchokes – the root of the sunflower plant – is next, roasted and then fried to bring out the nutty flavour, and filled with a smooth purée of sunchoke and spiked with fresh green chili and green chili salt.

It is innovative yet thoughtful cooking. It showcases local ingredients, underlining their vibrant flavours and making them the star of the dish. And that, essentially, is what makes the new tasting menus at Canvas in Thonglor so alluring.

For those that came in late to the Canvas story, the two-storey restaurant with its elegant mix of dark wood, leather, classic black and white tiling and open-plan kitchen is the stomping ground of tousled-haired Texan chef Riley Sanders.

A graduate of the Texas Culinary Academy in Austin, his resume includes a stint at the threemichelin-star L20 under Chef Laurent Gras and stages at Chicago Michelin-star restaurants Alinea and Blackbird. A return to his hometown in Texas led to work at the fine-dining eatery Jeffrey’s of Austin, and at award-winning eateries Uchi and Uchiko. Most recently he served as the executive chef on a superyacht based out of Miami, whose wealthy owners were extremely supportive of his experimentation, which draws inspiration from his travels.

“I was working two months on, two months off, eating at some of the best Michelin restaurants in the world. And I would also visit a lot of markets everywhere I went to eat the food that the local people were eating. The idea was to figure out what makes great food great in different countries around the world,” Riley explains.

“I think each country looks at food a little differently and values different things in cooking, and I wanted to draw some connections and patterns of how different people around the world were thinking of food. That really shaped how I think about food now; using the local ingredients and not trying

to categorise it as this Western, fusion, or Thai.”

His “Bangkok has him now” moment came after a trip to the Khlong Toey market on his first visit. The sights, smells and the span of incredible produce there cast a spell. “After travelling to 35 countries, Bangkok was a place I would come back to more often than others. I’m really inspired by the city itself. It was very exciting, stimulating vibrant... it’s fun, engaging. It didn’t feel like a place I would get bored [with] easily,” says Riley, adding that a chance meeting with owners of the restaurant led to him staying.

“I met the eventual owners of the restaurant, who also own cocktail bar Rabbit Hole. They were interested in opening a restaurant and I was interested in cooking in Bangkok. We just kind of came is Asian, together around this idea we had.

“We want to use exclusively Thai ingredients and do something different with it. It’s not about trying to compete with Thai food – it’s about respecting and appreciating the ingredients that are here,” Riley says.

“We also look at tradition and what’s been done with ingredients previously. When we get a new ingredient, I’ll ask one of the cooks, ‘What is this and what do you guys use it to make?’ We do apply some traditional knowledge to the ingredient but we also think about it from a more progressive standpoint.”

The result of months of testing and perfecting technique, the new six- and nine-course tasting menus here are playful evidence to Riley’s unique style of cooking and commitment to the use of local, sustainable produce. Much like the crayfish that kicks off our meal. Sourced from Buriram, the crustacean is seasoned with lime ash, made by cooking limes for two days in coconut husk charcoal. It is poached and then coated in a purée of grilled red chilies, seasoned with garlic, lime juice and coconut water. Pickled dala flower, preserved somjeed (kumquat), cilantro, and very young lemongrass heart complete the garnish. It’s a complex swirl of flavours – sweet, sour, salty and bitter – with the crayfish meat pulling its weight with a hint of umami.

Toasted rice bread, simple as it seems, involved a variety of rice types. Organic red rice from Nan is toasted with pandan leaves and sticky rice powder, while fermented rice is the starter. First baked and then slowly grilled, the bread is topped with an emulsion of brown butter cooked with jasmine rice, honey and yellow chili. Before being served, each one is dusted with cured, salted egg yolk for cheesy notes and khao kuah (toasted stick rice powder). It’s a standout, addictive to the point I could happily eat a box of these and skip the rest of the meal. But one must carry on.

While both menus offer excellent Old and New World wine pairings, you could opt for one of the wonderful concoctions that come from Rabbit Hole next door.

In quick succession, the main proteins arrive, each with a distinctive nod to local flavour profiles. First, there is a silken wedge of grouper. Poached in the oil of mah kwan pepper, a wild pepper commonly found in Mae Hong Son, it is seasoned with lime juice, topped with toasted wild almonds from Isaan, and finally garnished with crispy Szechuan pepper leaf. A sauce made from wild almond milk and drops of mah kwan pepper oil complements the other ingredients.

Likewise, blue swimmer crab gets meticulous attention to detail. Sticky rice is cooked in crab stock with aromatics and roasted tomato, then tossed with fresh crab meat. Caramelised crab roe, seasoned with lime, dried chili, garlic, turmeric and young ginger is used to create a sumptuous sauce. Chiang Mai tomatoes, slowly cooked in dried chili oil, are added with finely sliced pickled turmeric. Balancing the richness of the dish is the final garnish of fried cha muang leaves.

Sous vide for 12 hours with coriander root, then grilled and glazed in a sauce of fermented soybean cake with dark palm sugar, garlic, jasmine vinegar and red chili, the pork belly is firm yet fork tender. It’s dusted with a powder of dried soya beans and spices, served with a slowly grilled slice of jicama seasoned with lime, and glazed in an emulsion of fresh coriander leaf.

Seasonal marian plums highlight the duck breast, smoked in rice stalks and served with a jus made from its bones, fermented marian plum juice and smoked rice, and a purée of garlic chives and oil. The wagyu tenderloin from Buriram, inspired by Shabu Shabu preparations, is thinly sliced and served raw along with an assortment of mushrooms prepared in a variety of ways, and a jus made from oxtail, seasoned with mushrooms, dried chili, Thai bay leaf, lemongrass and peppercorn. These last two dishes are powerful testament to Riley’s deft ability at flirting and combining many different ingredients and flavours.

Dessert is – surprisingly – jackfruit, and done many different ways: ice cream, fried seeds, crispy pieces of the fruit, jackfruit glass, soured jackfruit purée, and a compote of jackfruit purée with its seed sweetened just a tad with honey. All this is balanced with a crumble of toasted milk powder and kaffir lime. It’s sublime, to say the least.

Could one ask for anything else? Probably not. Yet, there’s more – a trio of delightful petit fours that one should not forgo.