Guest chefs Nicolas Schneller and Supanut Khanarak

June 2010 at Restaurant Ikarus: Schneller & Khanarak

The fourth season

"The Spice Market, Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok", Thailand

The climate in Thailand can be roughly divided into three seasons – the cool season, the hot season, and the rainy season. Take a look at the Kingdom's culinary seasons and you might add a fourth, whose existence is justified by the epicurean weatherman in the guise of executive chef Nicolas Schneller and Thai chef Supanut Khanarak, who jointly run the kitchen at the Four Seasons Hotel in Bangkok.

Nicolas Schneller took his first steps in the direction of haute cuisine aged seventeen, at Francizod in his home city of Lyons, France and at pâtisserie Marron Glacé as pastry commis. After three years in British kitchens he returned to the land of the great chefs in 1983. His path took him to Hotel Restaurant Château de Montreuil, Patisserie Weiss Créteil and the kitchen of the Le Crillon Hotel. In June 1985 he embarked on another triumphal culinary tour of the world. His early conquests included the restaurants at the Richemond Hotel in Geneva and the Ramada Renaissance Hotel in Hong Kong. For 14 years thereafter he entered into a culinary marriage with the Hyatt hotel chain, making his home in kitchens in Jakarta, Bangkok, Fukuoka, Shanghai, Mendoza and Seoul.

In 2004 he arrived at his latest post, the Four Seasons Hotel in Bangkok, where he controls the fate of four gourmet restaurants. The Madison restaurant is a modern steakhouse, which attracts gourmets from all over the world with its matsuzaka, kobe and wagyu beef. Sushi, sashimi, noodle and tempura dishes are elevated to new heights at Shintaro, a Japanese sushi bar. If you're looking for Mediterranean creations in a city like Bangkok, the perfect place is Biscotti, which serves Italy on a plate.

The fourth restaurant, Spice Market, has been crowned the best Thai restaurant in Bangkok under the management of Thai chef Supanut Khanarak. The top three, delicious creations are Kaon Tang Natang (crispy rice cakes with minced meat dip), Thom Yum Kung (the famous spicy crab soup) and Nua Phad Bai Kapraow (roast beef with chilli peppers and fresh basil).

Before the chef delighted the taste-buds of Spice Market diners, she trained at the School of International Hotel and Tourism Business Center in Thailand. She travelled to the far side of the world to take up a post at the Sailor Thai restaurant in Sydney. For the next four years Supanut worked as chef de cuisine at Wok Station in Sydney and the Nitan Restaurant & Bar in Pyrmont. In 2004 her homesickness got the better of her and the top female chef decided to return home. Over the next few years Supanut cooked in the kitchens of the Nara Restaurant, the Senses Bangkok Restaurant and at The Metropolitan Bangkok. She arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel in 2007.

By smoothly blending two cookery styles, Nicolas Schneller and Supanut Khanarak have succeeded in helping their employer's establishment in Bangkok live up to its name, with a fourth culinary season that every guest will remember long after the meal.