Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Bangkok and Chef Krit invites you to discover a new modern Thai dining experience at basil.
A master of Thai cuisine, Chef Krit Prathuangsukh has revitalized basil with the introduction of a new menu concept that feature contemporary interpretations of regional favorites loved by locals. Expertly prepared without compromising authentic flavors, the exciting new dishes are the “same same…but different”.
Chef Krit has a life-long love of cooking. As a young boy of just eight years old he would create and cook dishes for himself. After school he worked in a Thai restaurant part time, before going on to study at the prestigious California School of Culinary Arts, Le Cordon Bleu, where he learned the principles of French cooking. His impressive culinary pedigree includes working at Bouchon Bistro in Beverley Hills, California, owned by 3-star Michelin Chef Thomas Keller and in top kitchens in Japan. It’s in these two countries that he was introduced to the modern techniques and artistic presentation that have come to define his unique style. With a fondness for the food and culture of the 80’s and 90’s, Chef Krit also endeavors to recreate treasured memories from his childhood. Today, we use his incredible knowledge and skill at basil to create a distinctly contemporary take on Thai cuisine while remaining true to authentic flavors.
Chef Krit believes that it is time to look beyond Thailand’s standard dishes such as green curry, tom yum and pad Thai and introduce diners to less well-known local favorites. The forward-looking chef is a catalyst for change. He passionately believes that it’s time to introduce diners to the incredible diversity of ingredients and regional dishes from around Thailand. For the new basil menu, he has chosen personal regional favorites and reinvented them for today’s discerning diners.
At basil, Chef Krit takes guests on a journey of the senses. His ingenious dinner menus can be experienced as 7 or 9 courses and feature intriguing dishes that will excite and delight adventurous diners. Highlights include a salad using grape seaweed from Krabi served with oyster foam. A regional favorite in the south, grape seaweed is a delicacy little known beyond its shores. At basil, Chef Krit combines it with oysters and Thailand’s famous nam jim seafood sauce to give diners a taste of the Andaman in one bite.
Chef Krit revisits the classic Chiang Mai sai oua sausage by presenting it as a delicious terrine in aspic jelly with mixed herbs, a technique often used in the traditional northern curry recipes of days gone by. There’s also mackerel and bilimbi fruit in a fish consommé, a dish that uses handpicked organic bilimbi with Thai mackerel to harmonize salty and sour tastes. His octopus with salted egg yolk espuma elevates the texture of a dish that usually uses squid, while the salted egg is a clever and flavor-packed twist on a foamy texture.
Other exemplary meat dishes include crispy pork belly with kale and black garlic. Of Thai-Chinese origin, the dish is given an added dimension by Chef Krit’s modern cooking methods and the use of aged black garlic to impart a sweet and syrupy taste. Although now highly-prized in western kitchens, this special ingredient is distinctly Asian. Also of note is his Isan-inspired tender grilled beef sirloin rubbed in toasted rice, dried chili, lime gel, and fresh herbs. His murex sea snail in curry sauce with climbing wattle leaves brings together two strong yet complementary ingredients, oceany murex and pungent wattle fronds to great effect.
At basil, the sensational tasting menu continues with a refreshing palette cleanser of green guava sorbet with grated salted dried plum and chili flakes followed by a divine dessert of bua loy pumpkin dumplings in coconut charcoal sauce with crispy salted egg sponge, both of which give new life to street cart favorites and end the dinner on a high note.
To complement the refined menu, basil has also introduced a collection of creative cocktails using Thai artisan spirits. The drinks menu includes Miss Phuket with Thai Phuket Bay Pure Series Rum, fresh lemongrass, lychee and lychee juice, lime juice, and infused sugar. There’s also Sunset in Krungthep made with Mekhong Thai rum, lime juice, pineapple and pineapple juice, ginger ale and infused sugar, as well as signature fermented tea drinks such as Kombucha Vada Gimlet with Chalong Bay Phuket Lemongrass Rum, ginger kombucha tea, fresh ginger, sour mix, lime juice and Giffard Agave, and Mango Kombucha, a mocktail with kombucha tea, freshly sliced mango, ginger, and sour mix.
Chef Krit’s innovative new menus at basil are a celebration of Thailand’s incredible diversity and regionality. It’s the “same same…but different” – the same great taste that diners expect from Thai cuisine but a totally different experience.
Join Chef Krit on an unforgettable journey of discovery with bold new dishes, exciting reinventions, artistic presentation and authentic flavors at Bangkok’s finest Thai restaurant – basil.
basil is open for dinner daily from 18:00 – 22:30 hrs.
