HAIL TO THE CHEF
The mastermind behind Long Chim, David Thompson, continues to surprise, delight and educate diners around the world. Delight being the operative word as Gabi Mills discovered.
’m sitting in the sexy, cavernous entrance to Long Chim Perth on a Wednesday afternoon. The lunchtime crowd, just out of sight in the main room, is noisy, appreciative, hungry for spice. There’s a buzz about the place (which isn’t unusual in my experience), but there’s an extra frisson today because somebody special’s behind the pots and pans. The restaurant chain’s creator and driving force David Thompson is in town, introducing a newly refreshed menu and hosting a special evening for his many devotees later that day. He comes up to me, resplendent in his chef whites and slightly seen-better-days jeans, friendly and immediately garrulous. We’re getting stuck into a recent national headlinegrabbing trial (rhymes with Cardinal Bell) when a departing diner with
friends hanging back a little approaches our table. He wouldn’t look out of place on the front line of the Wallabies and yet he is hesitant, nervous, his hand extended towards David. “I just wanted to come up and say that I love your food David. I’ve got all your cookbooks.” David graciously accepts this unexpected endorsement from Mr Scrum Half and turns to smile at me as the happy group of fanboys leaves. “Now where were we?” he asks me, twinkling. To be honest, I’m not sure. We’d already covered in the first 15 minutes of our interview the Catholic Church (including a discursive journey into Purgatory and its associated pleasures and pains), the follies of Brexit, venal politicians, amusing religious head gear – and that’s before I’ve even asked a single question about food. For my part, I can understand
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the sincere desire to shake David’s hand, just as that diner did. I first ate his food back in 2002 in London at Nahm, and have never forgotten the experience of tasting Thai food so blisteringly hot, tasty, kaleidoscopic that I can still picture the exact moment I first put that forkful in my mouth. I’ve loved watching him pop up on TV, his unpolished, distinctive telly persona so charming and different to the chlorine-washed rent-a-celeb chefs which tend to befoul our screens mostly. He’s an award-winning author and generally considered to be the world’s leading authority on Thai cuisine - even among Thais themselves. Happily married to his cocollaborator Tanongsak Yordwai and living in Bangkok with his noisy cat (of which more later), I get the impression he’s something of a victim of his own success. OK
