World Gourmet Festival Bangkok opens with Julien Royer
Julien Royer, Álvaro Clavijo and Georgiana Viou lead six days of collaborative dinners at the Anantara Siam, where the headline chefs' solo nights are already sold out.
The World Gourmet Festival Bangkok opens its 26th edition tonight at the Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel, with Julien Royer of three-Michelin-star Odette in Singapore among ten chefs cooking the opening dinner. The festival runs until 4 October.
The opening event, “Horizons & Heritage”, takes over the hotel's Grand Ballroom on Rajadamri Road from 6pm, at THB 5,500 per person. Beside Royer, the line includes Dave Pynt of Burnt Ends in Singapore, Álvaro Clavijo of El Chato in Bogotá and Heros De Agostinis of Ineo in Rome, plus six Bangkok-based chefs including Arnaud Dunand and Giacomo Primante. For the rest of the trip, our guide to what to eat in Bangkok covers the street-level side of the city.
Sold-out nights at the World Gourmet Festival Bangkok
In Bangkok the visiting stars sell out first; the Thai pairings are where the festival earns its name.
The headline dates went first. Royer's solo three-star dinner at Madison Steak Avenue on 30 September is listed as sold out on the festival site, as are the solo evenings of Pynt and Clavijo on 1 October. The shared dinners on 2 and 3 October remain on sale at THB 19,200 per person.
Several pairings put a visiting chef next to a Thai kitchen. Georgiana Viou, who in 2023 became the first African woman to earn a Michelin star, for Rouge in Nîmes, and now leads L'Ami at Sofitel Cotonou Marina in Benin, cooks on 1 October with Pilaipon “Toi” Kamnag and Piyachart “Boy” Puttawong of Saneh Jaan. Clavijo meets Chumpol Jangprai of R.Haan on 2 October, while Pynt cooks the same night with Dylan Jones and Duangporn “Bo” Songvisava of Bo.lan.
Speaking to the South China Morning Post, in a piece republished by the Bangkok Post on 23 September, Josiah Citrin of Mélisse in Los Angeles described the pressure plainly: “The expectation is always high, but that's what makes these events exciting.”
Mango sticky rice and a charity finale
On 3 October the hotel's World Food Fair adds an attempt at a Guinness World Records title for the longest mango sticky rice, between 2pm and 4pm, with entry at THB 500. The festival closes on 4 October with a brunch at Parichart Court for THB 7,500, cooked by nine chefs including Viou, Citrin, Zee Yunze Zheng of Fabula in Shanghai and Deepanker Khosla of Haoma.
According to the organisers, a portion of every dinner ticket, plus the proceeds of auctions at the gala, goes to the Foundation for the Welfare of Rajavithi Girls' Home.
The festival lands in a busy month for the city's kitchens, after IGNIV Bangkok named Dominik Falk as head chef. For Saneh Jaan's Toi Kamnag, the host role is the point: “Bangkok is no longer simply a destination where international cuisine is presented; it has become an active and influential participant in the global culinary conversation.”
