Thai Spa Cuisine
Spa Cuisine can it really be Thai? What with all those Thai delicacies such as Som Tum (Papaya salad), Tom Ka Gai (Chicken in coconut milk soup), Pat Kapow Moo (Pork with basil), Kao Paad (Fried rice) and Kaoneow Mamuang (Mango with sticky rice) being steeped saturated fats, salts and sugars, how can these local culinary delicacies conform to the guidelines of Spa Cuisine?
Spa Cuisine by its very nature is a low fat, low salt and low sugar form of cookery. This is not to say that fat, salt and/or sugar must be eliminated, but just that we over consume these elements in our normal diets and we would be a lot healthier if we took the effort to review and subsequently reduce the quantity that we consume. From this you can expand or specialize with concentration or development on allergy cookery and regionalized menus or even venturing into totally raw food cuisine. Regardless, the basic three points are essential to the fundamentals of Spa Cuisine and if you then add the flavors of Thailand, then you have a winning combination from which to work.
Thai Cuisine demands that only the freshness of ingredients be used, coupled with the tradition of a high level of intensity in flavors means that it is relatively simple to adjust many of the so called traditional recipes so that they do conform to the guidelines required of Spa Cuisine.
So why is it that despite Thailand being a recognized leader in Spa Cuisine development is there still relatively few outlets that have explored this opportunity? Will it follow true in that as the Spa industry continues to grow, then so too the interest in all aspects of the Spa culture shall grow, making Thai Spa Cuisine available to a larger audience?
While extolling the virtues of a cuisine will prove a public relations foot print, it is the Spa operators themselves that need to see the relevance of the cuisine to ensure that this unique aspect of the Spa culture is developed to its potential. With the traditional aspects of spas in Thailand providing a unique basis for their development, coupled with the general social principles and ‘caring’ attitudes of Thai society, does it not make sense that this caring will carry through so at least some ‘post visit’ care? After-all, whether a customer has spent five hundred baht or five thousand baht in your spa, they have at the very least started a detoxification process in the body. It makes no sense to then effectively stop this process with the ingestion of have toxin laden foods that we ‘normally’ consume.
With Thai Cuisine being in an increasingly demanded position the world over, and Thai Chefs being exported to Thai restaurants across the globe, the further development of the cuisine as a truly healthy one, in full support of the growing spa culture in this country is surely a natural process and while few formal opportunities exist to learn this truly unique cuisine are available in Thailand, the basic skills and knowledge are available. All that is required is for them to be put into practice, with the support of the health care fraternity. By this, I mean the dieticians and nutritionists amongst us, who have the ‘real’ knowledge. While the basis of the cuisine are low fat, low salt and low sugar, with virtually no formal training available to the cooks and Chefs in Thailand, until the educational process is formalized for this trade, it will fall to the dieticians etc. to guide the budding Spa Cuisine Chefs, but it is essential that the Chefs still be able to stamp their creative talents on the food, even though they may have stringent ingredient or quantity guidelines within which to work. Some will make mistakes and stretch the established guidelines too far, but this will happen in any development. Without the formal education opportunities the learning curve involved may well be longer than it would otherwise be, however if Spa Operators and Chefs see the truly unique position that they are in, then the few specialists that currently exist in this field will become increasingly in demand, until the knowledge base broadens and public acceptance is more general.
Spa magazines have been a major benefactor of the growth of the Spa industry, and these are looking to cover all aspects of this new lifestyle. They seek out proponents of Spa Cuisine, or other various forms of healthy cooking but unfortunately due to ignorance of lack of resources, they often fail in their goals subsequently promoting any Chef or his cuisine that has a good public relations person working for them, or where the food just looks good. Once these publications really understand that their education role needs to be more factual, on ALL aspects of the Spa culture, the cuisine will see a major surge in development.
Even many of the world’s hotel chains are now adding dedicated spa cuisine dishes to their menus, unfortunately often with limited guidance being given to a reluctant Chef who does not understand the principles of the cuisine, nor the possible health benefits. Nutritional information provided to the consumer on these menus can only be seen as highly questionable at best. As with all food preparation unless you actually understand and care about what you are doing, the end result will not be to the wider expectation.
So we know understand the potential of the cuisine, we need to explore why this a little further why it has not grown at the same rate as the spa culture. Obviously the fact that spas are seen as comfort zones, with all aspects of comfort being catered to including that of so-called comfort foods, has resulted in the Thai Spa cuisine not earning its true place in the culinary repertoire. As mentioned above the growing world wide demand for the simple yet intense flavors provided for by Thai cuisine means that the Chefs of Thailand are in a unique position to develop the cuisine further and to even rival the traditional standard of French Haute Cuisine. While French cuisine remains the basis that the industry professionals of today learn from, it will take time for this to change, but now is the opportunity for this to change.
Taking a simple cooking technique such as shallow frying as traditionally taught will not enable Thai Cuisine to develop further into Thai Spa cuisine. It will take a completely different thought process before we realize that the fats used so readily and yet widely acknowledge as being not good for our health are significantly reduced in their use in the culinary process. With Thai cuisine like many other Asian cuisines based on the fast cooking process of a wok, the need for fats and oils as a cooking medium can be mineralized if not eliminated. The culinary flavor bases of chicken or vegetable stock can be utilized instead of the fats and oils, with a slight technique adjustment, rendering the finished product a much healthier alternative, and more likely than not, conforming to all three rules of Spa Cuisine.
So once we have the techniques sorted, we can re-look at the specifics of the ingredients used. With Thailand remaining an agricultural based economy, the importance of the simple pleasures in life will remain. This means not only the physical importance of food, but also the social aspects there of. Meals are a time when the family is most likely together in a cohesive unit with one goal in mind – the enjoyment of food and friends. For this, flavors and textures are essential in their consideration. Not only the hot, sour, sweet and salty flavor aspects demanded by tradition, but also the textural elements of liquids (soups), the crunch of raw salads, the pasty texture provided by the food staple of rice, the firm texture of fish and meats or the sweetness of fresh fruits. Western cuisines provide these flavors and textures also, so why is it that Thai Cuisine has the opportunity to take this further? Western cuisines have long been far less adventurous in their construction. With countries as diverse as France, America, Spain, England, New Zealand, Vietnam, Hong Kong and India amongst others long having a history of association or dominance by the so-called commonwealth powers, it is obvious that any occupation would result in changes to the food served on the table either as a result of the local residents seeking acceptance or to please their ‘hosts’, this bastardization or obliteration of local cuisines has been occurring for hundreds of years and as with the degradation of the plant and animal kingdoms of the world, so our culinary traditions are also being lost.
Thailand, being one of the few countries in the world which has never been dominated by other powers, is in the unique position of being able to develop a very special cuisine, and this is what has been happening for many, many years. With the increasing tourist trade in the country, and the ‘toning down’ of traditional dishes to accommodate the tourist palate, the cuisine needs to re-establish itself to remain a true cultural icon. Fortunately many traditionalists are seeing this and a resurgence in restaurants committed to serve only ‘real Thai food’ are exploding across the globe, but for economic prosperity alternatives need to be considered on the local front. This is where Thai Spa cuisine can continue to grow. As the overall health consciousness of the society develops, so too the need to provide a more universal cuisine that is suited to today’s modern fast passed, yet all too often, inactive world. A cuisine that will supplement and support other cuisines, yet due to the selection and treatment of ingredients shall remain unique. Simple things like the use of the coriander roots, something that is not done in any other cuisine will ensure that Thai cuisine remains unique.
With globalization, the commitment to ensure that local and regionalized cuisines is seeing a resurgence. Thai cuisine is no exception to this - just look at the selections of foods served in a Chiang Mai restaurant, compared to those offered in a Bangkok or Hat Yai restaurant. And while Chiang Mai restaurants may have a Chinese influence or those in Hat Yai have a Malaysian influence stemming form centuries of co-operation, they remain uniquely Thai, without being dominated. Chefs and Restaurateurs know that economically if they purchase produce locally it will be cheaper and their profit margins potentially greater, than if they import their product from other regions. Thai consumers have limited access to refrigeration in comparison to the western world, so freshness is also a practical consideration, one that can be exploited further as we continue to study and understand the health qualities of the foods we eat. With Thai Spa cuisine being cooked quickly as with traditional Thai cuisine, we know that the nutrients lost in the cooking process are minimized. However with the added advantage of reduced fat, salt and sugar contents and couple this with the digestive qualities of the ginger and chili and the blood cleansing properties of garlic ensure that the three key ingredients to the kitchens of Thailand provide a health base to a healthy cuisine and what more could one ask for?
So as the Spa culture takes a real and long lasting hold on the society in which we live, all aspects of this culture will not doubt be analyzed and dissected repeatedly but the facts remain that Thai cuisine holds a unique place in the worlds kitchen and the potential for Thai spa cuisine to become the world leader in health cuisines remains unquestionable.
While Day Spa operators are unlikely to be at the forefront of this development due to the scale of their operations, the hotel, resort, club and destination spas with greater facilities and greater backing are more likely to be the ones that search deeper and longer in an effort to provide a service different from their competitors, and afford themselves a unique place in the market. Free standing restaurants also have the opportunity to explore this health phenomenon like the world has never previously known.
So let’s face it, Thai Spa cuisine holds a unique place within a truly unique cuisine - one that will see major growth and development in the coming years and while it may well be those with an entrepreneurial foresight that benefit from it financially ultimately it is all of use that benefit.