You don't have to read German chef Heinz Winkler's CV to be impressed - his food does all the work. He duly impressed 70 diners at Chiang Mai's Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi Hotel one recent evening, and that morning shared some of the how-to with paying guests in his kitchen.

Winkler made three dishes: a whole Bresse chicken in salt dough, Tasmanian salmon in puff pastry with tarragon mustard seed sauce, and poached crayfish with home-made gnocchi and chive sauce.

It all seemed so easy. The chicken was simply roasted, albeit in a jacket of salt dough. The gnocchi blossomed under fingers adept at kneading, dividing and chopping and not rubbing too hard or too softly.

Those watching remained unconvinced, though, that they could replicate the feast in their own kitchens. They looked on pensively, wondering if they could adapt his recipes to their own skill level.

In Winkler's domain, breaking the roasted chicken out of its dough shell is a matter of some delicacy. It needs some cooling-down time for starters, then the right knife. The dough has to be cut perfectly, in almost equal halves. Machine precision seems called for.

"I couldn't do that," one onlooker immediately decided. "And I couldn't slice the chicken so perfectly either."

All three dishes involved ingredients from the local royal development projects. You'll have a hard time finding Bresse chicken and fresh thyme and rosemary in Bangkok, let alone fresh crayfish, but they're all essential.

As soon as the chef had helped the chicken out of the dough, the herbal aroma was magical.

The participants in the cooking class at least had the consolation of being able to taste everything. If anyone needed evidence that Winkler deserved to hold onto his three Michelin stars for 20 years and counting, the three dishes provided it.

The fish mousse was flawless, the gnocchi melted in the mouth. Flavour, aroma, presentation - excellent, excellent, excellent. The class cost Bt4,000 and no one complained.

Satisfaction was similarly guaranteed in the evening, when Winkler effortlessly stretched his magic over eight courses at the hotel's Farang Ses restaurant.

The enchantment began with a goose-liver mousse, sweet but for the tang of orange sauce. Seven wines were served during dinner, not one a miss. With the liver mousse there was a gewurztraminer, Henri Kieffer 2003. Vin de Constance from the Klein Constantia Estate, a Constantia 1999, was served with dessert, a pineapple capriccio with mango sauce and coconut ice cream.

Another bird from Bresse, this time breast of pigeon, boasted still-red meat with crispy trim, and it was perfect.

The patrons, both foreign and Thai, were fundamentally moved to ravenousness, kindly lightening the wait staff's burden by leaving absolutely nothing on their plates.

The price for the meal: Bt6,800. Complaints: none. Tummies: gleeful. Winkler's dishes don't just speak volumes for his talent - they shout out loud.

Veena Thoopkrajae

The Nation

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Poached Crayfish with homemade gnocchi and chive sauce

Ingredients

Gnocchi

6 large potatoes

4 egg yolks

200g corn flour

2g salt

1g nutmeg

Sauce

0.5cl white wine

0.2tbsp Noilly Prat white dry vermouth

2tbsp fish stock

500g butter

2g salt

2tbsp whipping cream

Green chives to taste

Poached crayfish

80g crayfish

10ml white wine

60ml water

2g salt

20g carrot

20g leek

20g celery

1 stick thyme

Method

Gnocchi

Boil unpeeled potatoes until almost cooked (not soft), then put in the oven at moderate heat (180 degrees Celsius) for around eight minutes to dry them. Cut the potatoes in half and remove the meat. Do not cut out the skin or burnt bits. Knead the hot potato meat, mix in egg yolk and slowly add the corn flour until the dough is no longer wet. Make the dough into a snake shape about as wide as your finger and cut into pieces around 2.5cm long. Boil the pieces in salt water until they rise to the surface. Drain and serve immediately

Gnocchi sauce

Bring the white wine and Noilly Prat to the boil, add fish stock and simmer to reduce. Blend in the cold butter. Add chopped chives and stir sauce before serving.

Poached crayfish

Boil the crayfish for three minutes in salted water. Break up the shell and clean, put to the side in cold water and add some salt. Reheat the crayfish in water and white wine with a bouquet of leek, celery and carrot. Add some thyme for flavour.

Serves four.