FEBRUARY 2011

Café Tartine

FEATURED RESTAURANT:

Tara's favourite restaurants

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SouvlakiOrder any dish from Grilled & Greek specialities and receive 1 fRee hummus, eggplant or feta cheese dip

Great American RibOrder a full Rack of Ribs & receive 1 fReeQuesadilla or chicken taquitos

F O O D B Y P H O N E ’ S M O N T H LY N E W S L E TT E R

DeALS ON WHeeLS

“I am Thai,” says Tara, “I was born and raised here, with a short break away for university. I am the DJ on the Afternoon Drivetime Show that’s on air Monday – Friday from 4-7pm on Radio Wave FM 88.

What I really enjoy about living here is that at all times great food is available at every corner, and of course the shopping. I have been using the services of Food by Phone for the past two years and I place an order about once a week. On weekdays it’s very convenient when I want a quick lunch before leaving the house and I don’t want to cook up a meal and then have to spend more time washing up. Sometimes when I wake up after a big night out and I can hardly move, Food by Phone becomes a real lifesaver! My all-time favourite is the Shepherd’s Pie from the Londoner, for those hangover days, it’s pretty unbeatable. Beirut is really great for easy and light lunches. And I love the Blackened Shrimp Caesar Salad from Bourbon Street.

My three favourite restaurants have to be The Londoner, Beirut and Bourbon Street.

TApANEE “TARA” MANAvARES DJ @ Wave fM 88

HanoiOrder 3 main courses and get a fRee portion of Fresh Spring Roll (Pork)

Just a three minute walk down Soi Ruam

Rudee from Ploenchit BTS station, Café Tartine

is serving a slice of chic Parisian lifestyle in the

heart of Bangkok. The first thing that catches

the eye is the bright yellow Ricard sun umbrellas

on the terrace in front of the restaurant. Once

inside the feel is fresh and bright, bleached

pinewood functional furniture; cabinets lined

with bottles of Ricard styled like a street café

in Montmartre and playful silhouettes of a line

of frying pans stencilled. This is a place to be

and spend time, lingering and indulging even

if it’s just sipping a coffee. Their cappuccinos

are presented in a tall glass cup displaying a

shot of espresso at the bottom with a head of

aerated milk sitting on top.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 >>

LAST MONTH’S WINNERCOLLeeN DuNN wins a complimentary

voucher of 1,000 THB

from GReAT AMeRICAN RIB

MONTHLYCOMPETITIONFor a chance to win a 1,000 THB voucher atCAfÉ TARTINe

please go to www.foodbyphone.comand answer a few simple questions.

It’s run by the team of Agat from Avignon and her husband Greg from Burgundy who has been working in the bistro/ wine bar industry for the past 15 years. Their concept for Café Tartine was to serve healthy fast food at an affordable price. “Our breads are custom-made to a specific size for us by Lenôtre,” says Greg, “we bake them fresh in-house. We were previously working in Las Vegas, friends convinced us to come to Thailand for five weeks after which we decided to move here 18 months ago.”

“The challenge we faced,” he says, “was to adjust our existing menus to match the

Café Tartine: 65/2, Wireless Road, Soi Ruamrudee,Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330Tel: 02-168-5464Website: www.cafetartine.net

Opening hours

Credit cards

Price per person without drinks

FBP partner since

10.30 am - 20.00 pm

All major cards

THB 400

2010

feATuReD ReSTAuRANTCAFé TARTINE

humidity and water here in Bangkok. It would be too expensive for us to bake with French flour so we had to find a good local one to work with. The shelf life of our bakery items is much shorter here, so we bake in small quantities every three hours which also helps us to manage waste.”

Café Tartine is an authentic casual café that opens at 8am to serve a set breakfast of coffee, a croissant and orange juice for THB 99. Throughout the day it’s possible to grab a light snack or meal. They serve a daily changing Plat du Jour which on the day we visited was chilled cucumber soup, pork tenderloin sandwich and bread pudding with a vanilla shot.

We can all be a bit picky about what we do or don’t want in our salads which is why Pick Your Salad and Dressing at THB 75 works brilliantly, everybody get what they want. Having received a guest’s order the chef tapes it to the side of the mixing bowl to ensure they only add what had been ordered.

Their three best selling items are the classic French Onion Soup, Croque Monsieur and Sandwich Jambon Beurre. The first, French Onion Soup, is a beef broth with caramelized onions and a slice of baguette covered in melted

Gruyère cheese. It is possibly the best known soup in the world that started life as a breakfast dish for the porters at Les Halle market after a night of carting vegetables, and which for Nigel Slater works because of it innate frugality and lack of presentation. The second is Croque Monsieur: a hot ham and cheese grilled sandwich that originated in France as a fast food snack served in cafes and bars. The third, Sandwich Jambon Beurre, made with Paris ham and French butter, two humble ingredients yet when chosen carefully and tucked inside a crisp crusted freshly baked baguette with a swipe of Dijon mustard the result is one of the world’s most extraordinary sandwiches.

In the future Greg plans to add a grill for steak, salmon, chicken and burgers with the goal of having a main course for dinner around THB 300 or with a glass of wine for no more than THB 500.

The key to their success is affordability and the quality of (Thai and French) ingredients used.

...to serve healthy fast food at an affordable price. “Our breads are custom-made to a specific size for us by Lenôtre”...

“I come from Rimini on the Italian Adriatic coast,” says Sergio. “My parents owned restaurants

and I grew up in the kitchen; being in the company of great pizza makers I had learnt to make

pizza when I was eight years old and owned my first restaurant La Bettola when I was 21. By

the time I was 26 I had my 600-seater Antica Factoria restaurant. Being a chef/ entrepreneur in

1990 I could see the traditional pizzeria would be taken over by the newly arrived pub trend in

Italy so I converted Antica Factoria into the Bounty Killer , which was Rimini’s first ristorante,

pizzeria, pub restaurant. The change came about because things were getting expensive and I

wanted to give my customers a choice of how they spent their money.”

“Working in Rimini was full on in the summer and I took time off in the winter when there were

no customers. I love scuba so I used to go to Egypt until a friend suggested great diving in the

Andaman Sea which is how I first came to Thailand in 2001. Because I love the sea I opened my

first restaurant in Krabi but workwise it didn’t give me satisfaction. I have always had locals as

my primary customers with tourists as the cherry on the cake, this didn’t happen in Krabi so for

business reasons I moved to Bangkok.”

“I do large restaurants to make the customer feel more comfortable,” he explains, “they can sit at

the table as long as they want; when there are no customers or it’s full they will be served in the

same time, regardless of the amount of customers present. It’s a matter of being organized and

having staff who are motivated to do their job, I am always telling the staff to look busy.”

“I am like an army commander,” he says, “I make the difference when needed but if all is

going well I let my team get on with their job. Italian food is a simple cuisine with a peasant

background; a pasta dish takes 10-15 minutes to prepare using techniques that are very similar

to the way Thais cook. I would never put a complicated dish on the menu that required me to be

tied to the kitchen, it’s not where I need to be on a daily basis. It’s very important to be consistent

and everything we cook must be good. Cooking is about manpower and here we can do the best

due to the cost of labour. We do use local vegetables; they don’t have the same taste as those

grown in Italy which is why we only buy the best. I believe that to be successful in this business I

have to be able to let go and trust the people I have employed to run the business, always keeping

a keen eye on what’s happening and being willing to take responsibility.”

Sergio FortecElEbRiTy CHef

Bacco Osteria da Sergio

35/1, Sukhumvit Road, Soi 53

Wattana, Bangkok 10110

cOOK bOOK OF THE MONTHTHe GeOMeTRY Of PASTA by

The Geometry of Pasta pairs over 100 authentic recipes from critically

acclaimed chef, Jacob Kennedy, with award-winning designer Caz

Hildebrand’s stunning black-and-white designs to reveal the science,

history and philosophy behind spectacular pasta dishes from all over Italy.

Being a smallish hardback in black and white is unusual when most other cook books are colourful

and glossy, but it’s that uniqueness that makes it so wonderful. A striking fusion of design and

food that tells you everything you need to know about cooking and eating pasta like an Italian.

This is possible the definitive pasta cook book of all time.

It has been called a cook book for the hungry graphic artist inside of you as there aren’t photographs,

just fabulous graphics of each individual type of pasta. The inspiration for graphics came from a wall

chart of plumbing grommets which was seen as a clean way so show off the pasta shapes and it works

brilliantly. For example agnolotti are, in essence, ravioli, but instead of being made from two squares

of pasta, they are made from one piece folded in half. After each description, there are suggested

sauces, the history of the shape and dimensions along with a recipe for a sauce or two.

Pasta needs sauce. Two interesting ones I found in the book are Ragu Napolitano and Guardaporta.

Ragu Napolitano is unlike most other ragu sauces as the meat used is cooked whole and the sauce

it makes is then used for the pasta. Another is “guardaporta” or doorman’s sauce, because it takes

a couple of hours to cook, and needs so much attention it could bubble away whilst he watched

the door. This is the stuff that makes a good recipe, readily available ingredients, a simple

procedure and just let the meat simmer in a tantalizing tomato sauce all afternoon; it doesn’t

have to be complicated to be good.

About the AuthorsJacob Kennedy: Just 28 years old he worked, on and off, for 10 years at Moro, the award-winning

Moorish restaurant in London’s Exmouth Market and was integral to the creation of its three

cookbooks. Then during his time at Boulevard, San Francisco, as “visiting executive chef”, the

restaurant won a Michelin star. He then returned to set up Konstam with Oliver Rowe, and then

opened Bocca di Lupo, as chef-patron.

Caz Hildebrand: Amongst other things she was the designer of Nigella Lawson’s rich and

lovely cook books and developed the creative Victorianesque concept behind Hendricks’s Gin.

Publisher: Quirk Books, August 2010

AVAILABLE:

ISBN:

Kinokuniya

Asia Book

9780752227375

Jacob Kennedy & Caz Hildebrand

A RomAnticSt. VAlentine’S DAy DinneR

@ Le PrÉ GriLL

To start a tomato and orange peel chilled soup followed by the choice of either pan-fried marinated tiger prawns with avocado and mixed hydro-green salad or finely sliced Atlantic smoked salmon served with yellow lemons and hydro mixed green salad. For the main course there is a choice of three dishes; either steamed halibut filet served on a bed of mixed green vegetables sun dried tomatoes and curry sauce or; filet of roast duck served with gratin dauphinoise potatoes with a berry sauce or; 48 hours marinated beef shank that has been slowly cooked in red wine served with sautéed vegetables and mashed potatoes. For dessert there is the choice of strawberry cake or blueberry cheese cake.

This set menu costs THB 1,500 per person.

3 WAyS to SAy “i Love You”If you want to say it quietly why not send a bouquet of red roses and valentine’s card for THB

2,000? To say it a little louder add a Teddy Bear, a romantic candle and a box of Chocolate to the

the hamper for THB 3,500. But to shout from the heart take the final step and add a bottle of

Champagne to make your message very clear for a total cost of just THB 5,000. However, you

want to say I love you to that special someone, let Food By Phone deliver your message.

Valentine’s DaYMeals

Question 1: Which Italian restaurant has a manager nicknamed Kuto?Answer: BaccoQuestion 2: What kind of material is used to decorate the Pizza Oven at Basilico?Answer: Italian sandstone, mosaic tiles, stainless steel front. Question 3: Which British pub has 2 human

size golden statues?Answer: The Black SwanQuestion 4: In the Bull’s Head Pub where was the original place of the bull’s head?Answer: Where the large mirror is now oppo-site the bar.Question 5: How many different types of Tequila’s does Coyote on Convent have?Answer: 56 Plus.Question 6: Which 2 restaurants have shuffle board games?Answer: Roadhouse and Durty Nelly’sQuestion 7: What Italian restaurant has a fountain inside?Answer: L’OperaQuestion 8: What restaurant has a Thai handicraft shop inside?Answer: Cabbages and condoms or Silom Village.Question 9: What Indian restaurant in Sukumvit has a swinging bench inside?Answer: Himali Cha Cha or Mrs Balbir.Question 10: What 2 restaurants do not have any tables or chairs for customers?Answer:WRAP IT, PIZZA MANIA or Chow Box.Question 11: What restaurant has a cows head with a bell inside?Answer: Chesa

Question 12: What Greek restaurant has an outside grill to cook food?Answer: Olive or SouvlakiQuestion 13: What American restaurant has a playground outside?Answer: Great American RibQuestion 14: What restaurant on Silom has a Hungarian manager?Answer: The BarbicanQuestion 15: There is a mural painting outside Bourbon Street, what is playing the drums?Answer: A lobster, Crawfish or ShrimpQuestion 16: What restaurant has a spa and a pilates studio upstairs?Answer: OliveQuestion 17: Which restaurant is located in the basement of an office building next to a Villa supermarket, close to Ploenchit?Answer: BeirutQuestion 18: What is on the second floor of Indian Host?Answer: A party or wine room.Question 19: Name three Indian restaurants that have gardens?Answer: HIMALI CHA CHA & SON, INDUS, REDQuestion 20: What partner restaurant has the most pool tables?Answer: The Sportsman

HampersWinners!

Food by Phone

1. SUSAN RicHEy 2. piSANEE SAiKliN 3. pHilppE DENAyvillE

From left to right: Kadesarin Sanjek, Michael Amyand Craig Thomas Manager Thailand and MekongRegion (Etihad Airways)

Food by Phone Eagles!

Congratulations

In the first bangkok Soccer league (bSl) cup of 2010-2011 the

Food by phone Eagles beat the Giants team in the final 1-0 to take

the trophy.

Food by Phone is one of 5 major sponsors of BSL sponsoring one

team in each division.