At the 10th year of the World Gourmet Festival held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Bangkok, Chef Kazumi Sawada of the one Michelin star Banreki Ryukodo presented a sake and food pairing dinner at the Shintaro restaurant the day before I left. I was very lucky as I was the last one to book for this dinner.

Dinner commenced with a chilled soup of gingko nuts tofu and matsutake mushroom with thin slices of medium rare smoked duck that were been perfumed with Japanese yuzu. This green Japanese Mandarin seemed to accentuate the smoked duck that blended well with the chilled dashi-based soup and the chewy gingko tofu. The sake that was paired with this was a Shirataki Jun Mai Daiginjo Jozen Mizunogotoshi Sake, a most elegant and classy flavored sake with a soft floral nose and very light pineapple and tropical fruit hints that was made from melted snow water.

The next dish was a simmered lobster with autumn berry and chestnut. The butter it was poached in had little dollops of wasabi and matched up to a stronger, clearer, more upfront but still quite floral style of sake, the Shirataki Junmaiginjo Jozen.

Nest was a roulade of pike conger. It was very delicate, white, and enriched with a foie gras center. It was placed on a sauce of pureed chrysanthemum leaves. This time, a rare 12-month fermented Ichinokura Tokubetsujunmai Shorai Sake from the northernmost area of Japan was served at room temperature, which was against your six-month, regular, traditional sakes. After, an Ichinokura Honjozo Mukansa Chokarakuchi Sake, also from the northernmost part of Japan, was put side by side with it. It was to see what one preferred paired with their roasted wagyu, fried taro, and some compound truffle butter.

Personally, I still preferred the first sake, which I felt was most elegant and would be a good pair to most Japanese food. (I also wanted larger portions, as I wanted more of Chef Sawada’s food in more European rations…)

The petit fours served to match the chef’s subtleties at the end of the meal were carefully thought of, even in terms of textures. A chewy floral-flavored marshmallow with a huge raspberry came in a skewer, so did some stuffed almond marzipan with crushed croquant and some brandy snaps to end this much anticipated and progressive Japanese menu.