Thai dream
ບັກຫຳແຫຼ້
by Suthon SUKPHISIT
A big jump in the number of Thai restaurants opening overseas, an
increase in exports of fresh food, more and more Thai chefs seeking
work abroad. Developments about which we're hearing a lot these days
and which indicate that Thai cuisine has become a hot item far beyond
our shores.
And this surge in interest has given rise to a new type of business:
setting up Thai restaurants from scratch in foreign climes. The work
involves finding a good location at an affordable price, obtaining the
necessary permits, designing the exterior and interior of the
restaurant plus the kitchen, selecting the head chef, recruiting staff
and organising reliable sources of fresh food in Thailand. And if all
goes according to plan, the restaurateur shouldn't have to do anything
more onerous than counting the day's take.
The idea came to Wanasnan Kanokpattanangkut while she was studying in
France. She'd been pondering business schemes that might work there
and began considering the possibility of selling Thai handicrafts.
Every year in France there's an exhibition of home-decor and household
items called Maison Objet. Deciding that Thai handicrafts would fit in
well, Wanasnan flew back to Thailand and then travelled up to Chiang
Mai and Chiang Rai, where, with help from the Department of Industrial
Promotion, she met artisans who specialise in ceramics, lacquerware,
saa paper products, flower-scented candles and articles made from the
wood of the rubber tree.
She chose items for resale in France and attracted enough buyers there
to make her stick with the business for two years. But since these
exhibitions typically last no longer than 10 days and the fee for
renting booths is high, Wanasnan began casting around for a permanent
base from which it would be possible to sell her goods all year long.
Then she got a flash of inspiration: Why not kill two birds with one
stone by opening a Thai restaurant and then using it to showcase Thai
handicrafts?
As it happened, she had Chinese friend named Ly Chi-Hoa who already
owned a Chinese restaurant in France and who wanted to open a second
one serving Thai cuisine. Deciding to cooperate on the project, the
pair started looking for a good location in Paris but soon realised
that decent-sized premises are both very hard to find and extremely
expensive. So they began considering properties out in the
countryside, and finally settled on La Norville, a picturesque village
set amidst cornfields.
They rented a place that had previously been a car showroom, and so
was big enough for their needs, and converted it into a Thai
restaurant that opened in 2001. Choosing to set up in La Norville
required a certain amount of courage because, since the village is
located far from any major town, they would be dependant on people
getting into their cars and driving there for a meal.
Wanasnan dug into her own collection of Thai handicrafts to decorate
the place and head-hunted cooks who were already working in France at
other Thai restaurants. Then came the task of attracting customers.
"We used a variety of methods," she said. "We distributed flyers
introducing our restaurant to the community and offered a few free
dishes - starters, for example. After about three months we began to
get a regular clientele.
"Many French people are already familiar with Thailand and have eaten
Thai food. When they found it was being sold near their homes, they
came to sample some. It was a good beginning. And after two years,
business had got very good.
"We then started thinking about a second [Thai] restaurant. We
inspected a very good location in Lognes, a beautiful town on a big
lake [in the Marne Valley]. There we found an old restaurant that had
served French food but which had gone out of business. We'd learned
from experience that, if you intend to open a restaurant, it's better
to choose a place that's already housed one because the existing
permit can often be extended. This makes things much easier.
"We wanted the restaurant to be completely Thai. So we flew back to
Bangkok and paid a visit to Bang Bua Thong district [in Nonthaburi
province] where they make Thai-style houses for sale. We asked them
to make a traditional roof out of teak to fix onto the existing roof
at the place in Lognes. It had a pointy apex and was covered with Thai
ceramic tiles.
"We did many other things, too, like putting in a Thai-style pavilion
for decorative purposes and painting a thewada on the front door to
act as a sort of guardian angel. The tables, chairs, counter and lamps
were all ordered from Thailand, and all of the decor is Thai.
"Everything was made in Thailand and shipped to France. We had Thai
craftsmen assemble it there. It was 100-percent Thai in every respect.
The restaurant opened for business in March this year and it's been
very successful over the few months it's been in operation. To get a
table, people have to book weeks in advance.
"Every day we have a turnover of two sets of customers per table. If
you compare us with other foreign restaurants there, ours is doing
very well. But then we began thinking that, since we've acquired so
much experience, we didn't need to restrict ourselves to doing this
set-up work just for our own restaurants. So we set up a company,
Aiyara, to do all the planning for anyone who wants to open a Thai
restaurant [in France]. First we choose a location. Then we consider
its viability: Do the people who live there eat out often? For which
meals? We decide what the front of the restaurant will look like, and.
make sure that safety features like entrances, exits and fire escapes
are as they should be. And there are other things to consider like
proper ventilation to dispel smoke and odours. Standards have to be
maintained for cleanliness, garbage storage and disposal. And the
decor and lighting must be right, too.
Then there's the matter of the kitchen. We decide what equipment is
necessary and ensure that it conforms to international standards. We
also specify the kind of tableware and utensils to be used. We decide
on uniforms for the employees, including those who welcome customers,
the waiting and kitchen staff.
"As regards administration, the manager of the restaurant has to be
French. We arrange training for the staff, and look first for Asians
to fill these positions. They can be Lao, Cambodian or Vietnamese - it
doesn't matter.We choose the chefs in Thailand. It's much easier now.
It used to take a year to make all the necessary arrangements; now we
can do it all in about two weeks.
Finally, our company organises the dispatch of fresh food to the
restaurant in France. We have experience in checking for [chemical]
residues on fresh vegetables. France and other countries are very
strict about this. When the produce is brought from the farm it has to
pass a Thai government inspection, after which a certificate is
issued. When it gets to France it is inspected again.
Since we're dealing with vegetables for the most part, everything has
to be done quickly so that they're still fresh when they arrive at the
restaurant. We always make sure to reserve space on flights so that
there are no delays.
We've now linked up with farms that have been certified by the
Ministry of Agriculture as 'safe'. They grow enough produce to fill
our needs all year round."
Aiyara is a novel idea that shows the diversity which creative people
can bring to the new commercial opportunities engendered by the global
popularity of our cuisine. We are moving closer to the day when every
Thai traveller and every foreign gourmet will be able to find
authentic, home-style Thai cooking in foreign parts.
(Original story posted in the Bangkok Post)