Yuletide celebrations and inspired degustations It’s Christmas at SO Sofitel Bangkok

Park Society invites year-end merrymakers to come in out of the cold and taste their Christmastime dining wishes come true

It’s that jingle-bell time of year and SO Sofitel Bangkok is turning up the holiday cheers! with a hotelwide ‘Once Upon a Wonderland’ theme featuring a host of enchanting, delectably alluring Christmas and New Year dining events being held at many of the lifestyle hotel’s popular venues. Christmas 2016 looks to be a ‘highly’ anticipated occasion as Park Society — the stunningly stylish high-up gourmet dining venue-on-the-park — trims its epicure tree with a 5-course wine paired degustation dinner, conceived and prepared by uniquely talented Chef de cuisine, Chef Joost Bijster.

He brings to the table a brimming larder full of cooking experience derived from working in Michelin-starred kitchens of his native Netherlands. And this December 24th and 25th, Bangkok diners can experience for themselves the cooking skills that have wowed such glittering world luminaries as actress Jenifer Lopez, the Jackson brothers (post-MJ) veteran rocker and actor Sting, as well as members of Holland’s royal family.

Park Society’s 2016 Christmas Eve/Christmas Day menu represents a rich palette of culinary influences, with highlight elements derived from a variety of diverse cuisines meticulously woven into a flavourful tapestry of pure gastronomic pleasure, presented by designer liveried hosts in an ambience of uninhibited chic-hip elegance, reality altering illumination and intricate spatial design.

Ceiling height windows offer a towering view of nearby Lumphini Park, its luxuriant treetop canopy spreading out like a blanket of green 29 floors below. Once seated the gaze lingers, focus softens and before you know it you’re lost in the moment, taking in the spectacular emerald-hued vista back-dropped by one of the city’s most picturesque sweeps of skyline. A Welcome Drink, in the form of an Australian Chandon Brut, arrives like the first notes of a symphony’s signature theme — the festive elegant movie score ambience for an evening of supreme-class gourmandise which has only just begun.

Presented in a petite glass jar, the Amuse bouche is rendered as layers of Foie gras crème brulee and port gelee, while a jauntily doffed chapeau of parmesan foam provides an intensely flavourful, lighter than air finish.

An Entrée of Confit salmon with fennel, citrus and black coral tuile is light and refreshing, a streak of wasabi chiming with its distinctively bracing piquantness.

Wine pairing: 2012 Founder’s Block Chardonnay, Katnook Estate, Coonawarra, South Australia

While fine white chocolate and ultra-premium tsar caviar may seem like an odd union in a terrestrial, off-magical season context, here amid these enchanting yuletide heights, Chef Joost expertly marries this unlikely-flavour pair to garnish his winterscape influenced 2nd course of Hokkaido Scallop and celeriac puree.

3rd course is a Nipponesque seafood creation featuring hamachi yellowtail with seaweed and enoki mushroom, served in a bowl alongside a teapot full of miso broth which, when poured over, subtly binds the individual elements in an earthy, sublime medley of flavours.

Wine pairing: Dourthe No. 1, Sauvignon Blanc, Dourthe, Graves, Bordeaux, France

With a plot taken straight out of a Hollywood buddy flick, the main course is a classic surf & turf team-up of Wagyu striploin and lobster, co-starring an accompaniment of cubed potato bite, caramelised onion and leek, with a truffle sauce cast as the alluring love interest.

Wine pairing: 2006 Chateau La Garde, Graves, Pessac-Leognan, Bordeaux, France

The cherry panna cotta with yoghurt sorbet and cherry foam Pre dessert sets the stage for the main afters event.

Your Dessert course is an impossibly smooth layered coconut and matcha mousse, with dabs of cranberry compote giving the dish a perfect tart-sweet balance.

Wine pairing: 2015 Quady Electra, Orange Muscat, California, USA.

For an invigorating al fresco finish to this sumptuous yuletide affair, Park Society guests can soiree the night away beneath the twinkling sky. Step right next door and mingle with the SOphisticated SOciety crowd at the Terrace, or pop one floor up to HI-SO Bar where chic merrymakers sip premium tipple and luxuriate under the stars.

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day 5-course degustation dinner at Park Society. December 24th & 25th 2016. 4,900++ per person 5-course Menu. 5,900++ per person with wine pairing.

SO Sofitel Hotel Bangkok. 2 North Sathorn Road. Reservations: 02 624 0000. email: h6835-fb3@sofitel.com. www.so-sofitel-bangkok.com.

Not valid for loyalty program and/or credit card discounts. Credit card guarantee is required for Christmas Eve/ Christmas Day dinner bookings. Drinks and snack items at Terrace and HI-SO Bar not included in Park Society Christmas dinner package price.