Thai food, in all of its plenitude and variety, has spread smooth as silk to every corner of the globe. But now it has come under scrutiny by a government unit that has created a device to define strict standards for recipes.
Pad Thai, fried noodle with egg and shrimp.
These will apply everywhere in the world: no matter whether you are preparing your tom yam for sale in New York, in Alaska, or in Papua New Guinea, they should all be identical in flavour and aroma. No differences can be tolerated. In other words, dishes that could previously be interpreted over a wide spectrum of tastes are being grabbed by the collar and forced into a tight corner of conformity.
The reason this project came about has to do with a trip abroad made by the previous prime minister, during which she tasted the Thai food there and complained to those travelling with her that it wasn't very good. This pronouncement sounded the alarm for ministers and others to offer their thoughts on the issue of finding a way to have Thai dishes everywhere taste the same.
This meeting of minds came to the conclusion that the cause of the problem had to do with the fact that the Thai restaurants overseas weren't owned by Thais but by Vietnamese, Chinese and Laos, who did not have a good understanding of Thai cuisine, and that as a result the food they cooked was not up to par. The way to set things straight, they decided, was to define standards for the flavour of Thai food, making it uniform by means of a single recipe.
Although the last government was kicked out and the minister who proposed this idea fell from power, the project itself survived, and with a work unit of its own. The National Innovation Agency in the Ministry of Science and Technology has responsibility for it, and has programmed the qualities of the standard, project-approved version of each dish into a tool called "Thai Delicious". These devices will be produced and distributed to various Thai embassies, especially those in countries where Thai restaurants are numerous. Embassy officials equipped with the machines are to function as tasters and sample the fare at Thai restaurants and evaluate how closely it conforms to the programme's criteria.
A point system will be employed, and those that make the grade will be given certificates in the form of stickers to put up in the shop or on the menu. But if the device gives a reading indicating that the food doesn't meet project standards, the restaurant fails the test.
The National Innovation Agency explained the stages of preparation and development that preceded the completion of the Thai Delicious device. First, standard recipes for certain Thai dishes had to be defined. Samples of popular Thai favourites were brought from various sources. All were considered to be especially delicious versions made from impeccable recipes. They were tasted by a group of judges said to have deep expertise in the field of Thai food. Chefs, academics and government officials all tasted them, offered their views, and gave point ratings. When they found a dish that they thought to be outstanding, it was put into a device that analysed it scientifically.
The machine has three parts. The first is an electronic nose that "sniffs" the food and examines it through an array of 16 gas sensors. Then there is an electronic tongue that uses electronic chemical methods to evaluate sourness, saltiness, sweetness and spiciness. Finally, a central processor collates and interprets the data from these sources and compares it with the standard values defined for it to arrive at a precisely measured evaluation.
The dishes selected to be strictly standardised in this way were phat Thai, kaeng khio waan (a spicy curry made with coconut cream) and kaeng massaman (a less spicy curry made with aromatic seasonings). This is the thinking and methodology behind Thai Delicious.
I see all of this as utterly empty and senseless, a complete waste of time and money. In the first place, 30 million baht was spent on a machine to define standards for only three dishes. It's not worth it.
Secondly, Thai cooking is an art. Preparing Thai food requires creative freedom. Every chef and everyone who eats the dishes prepared has personal tastes. Our food is part of our culture and we have had instincts connected with both cooking and eating it since ancient times. For example, look at kaeng som plaa chon kap phak boong (a soup-like curry made with fish and a morning glory-like plant). If you taste it in 10 different homes, you will experience 10 different flavours and will enjoy the experience of having each one impress you in its own way.
So it isn't fair to have all restaurants compelled to make their versions of a dish taste exactly the same. It isn't frozen food that comes from a factory.
These days, with our technology, we have immediate access to information of all kinds. People can make informed choices of what and where they want to eat. Each restaurant has its own special character and establishes a reputation that lets people know where the kitchen has its strong points.
There is nothing remarkable about a Thai restaurant abroad that is Vietnamese- or Chinese-owned offering bad food. Some places with owners who are 100% Thai put mushrooms and pork into their phat Thai and leave out the hua chai po, or Chinese radish. They put in spring onion instead of Chinese celery because they say their customers prefer it that way. That is the reason restaurants make their food the way they do — it is the customers who determine how business will be in the future.
The third reason is a genuine problem that confronts Thai restaurants in foreign countries — the availability and quality of raw ingredients. The aroma and flavour of almost every kind of Thai food comes from local herbs and vegetables, seasonings, even coconut cream. Thai chefs working in Thailand squeeze their own coconut cream, while those overseas have to rely on packaged products from Thailand, Samoa or Fiji, which can't compare with the fresh-squeezed cream. Nowadays fresh plants used in Thai cooking like chillies, basil, limes, mint and mangoes can be cultivated in England or other countries, but they are not the same as the ones grown in Thailand.
The tom yam made in some countries uses dried ingredients sent from Thailand or prepared mixes packaged in envelopes or jars. Some countries have very strict laws governing the import of fresh produce from Thailand, creating a barrier that is very hard to penetrate. This means that any ironclad standards governing the preparation of Thai food abroad has to take the availability of raw ingredients into account. The Thai Delicious device may be able to give exact readings of sourness, saltiness and sweetness, but it can't tell where the eggplants have to come from, whether the phrik khee nuu (hot chillies) have to be the small phrik khee nuu suan variety or the bigger ones, and how many of them should go in.
Therefore when dealing with problems involving standards in Thai cooking, the use of this machine, or you might say, robot, won't be much help. There are so many problems that have to be solved before you even plug it in.
Thailand's high-level bureaucrats are like rich kids who have the government as their millionaire parents, but who aren't too bright. They love amusing themselves with useless things, and seem to have learned nothing from misadventures that fizzled out in the past. About 10 years ago, for example, the Ministry of Labour formulated a curriculum for educating chefs who would be going to work in restaurants abroad. They were taught how to make phat Thai, tom khaa kai (a chicken soup with coconut cream and lime), kaeng khio waan and tom yam kung. Students were in class one hour a day for 11 days. That is all the time they had to learn how to prepare these dishes and practise in the kitchen. No need to get hopes up that the food would be any good. In Japan, any chef applying for a visa has to have had at least 10 years of experience working in a restaurant and must also present a detailed resume.
Not long after that the Ministry of Commerce had a project which involved distributing "Gold Certificates" — certificates printed in gold — to Thai restaurants in the US that were considered to be especially good. A procession of 50 presenters travelled first class to many states to hand out the documents. Who knows where the Gold Certificates are now. Hanging in the lavatory? Lining the trash bin out back?
This time we have Thai Delicious, brainchild of the Ministry of Science and Technology. Which ministry will come up with something next time round, and what else will they inflict on our culinary culture?
