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Published on August 15, 2007

The World Gourmet Festival returns to the Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok from September 9 to 16 with a range of activities that runs the gamut from special dinners created by celebrity chefs to personal cooking classes.

Since its inception eight years ago, the festival has grown in prominence to feature an extraordinary line up of some of the world's best chefs. Several food festivals are hosted throughout the world, but the Four Seasons is one of the few hotels to bring award-winning master chefs under one roof for a week-long celebration of outstanding food, superb wines and to share tips and information on how to create top class cuisine.

Confirmed participating chefs are:

Patrizia Di Benedetto - the owner of Bye Bye Blues restaurant in Palermo, Italy - who concentrates on a lighter cuisine using fish and vegetables and the fresh flavours of the Mediterranean. Her unusual and innovative desserts are also a signature, especially her chocolate mousse cake, which has won her many plaudits, and her semifreddo of ricotta and bitter orange marmalade. She was named Best Pastry Chef in Espresso's Italian Restaurant Guide.

Paul Wilson of The Botanical in Melbourne is credited with serving some of Australia's most exciting food. Wilson has been described as one of the most extraordinary culinary talents in the Commonwealth, acclaimed for dishes that take an innovative approach to cuisine traditions.

His cooking style - flavoursome, textural and adventurous - spans the rustic and the subtle. It's unpretentious, with the focus on strong regional flavours.

Young, talented Romain Fornell was the first French chef to be awarded a Michelin star in Spain.

Working with Alain Ducasse at Taillevent in Paris gave him the skills to develop his own culinary style, and in 2000 Fornell opened his own restaurant in the Languedoc region; the following year he won his first Michelin star, the youngest French chef ever to receive this award.

He moved to Barcelona in 2002 to take over the Diana restaurant, before opening Caelis in 2004 and receiving his second Michelin star in 2005. His specialities include suckling pig confit and sardine cous cous.

Douglas Rodriguez, known as the godfather of Nuevo Latino Cuisine, has changed the image of Latino food in America and opened award-winning restaurants across the USA. His newest, DeLa Costa in Chicago, recently received three stars from the Chicago Tribune.

Recently, Newsweek selected Rodriguez as one of the 100 Americans who will influence this millennium.

Nicole Krasinski was recently named Best San Francisco Pastry Chef by StarChefs and has been with the nationally acclaimed Rubicon in San Francisco since 2004.

Less than a year after her arrival at Rubicon, Krasinski's desserts garnered three stars from the San Francisco Chronicle, and in 2005 she was named one of the Chronicle's Rising Star Chefs.  That same year, San Francisco magazine named her Pastry Chef of the Year.

Her dishes blend local flavours with unexpected elements, creating a style all her own.

The cooking style of Canadian chef Susur Lee can be traced to his childhood experiences in Hong Kong, where he was born, and where aged 14 he began his apprenticeship at the legendary Peninsula Hotel.

In Toronto, he opened his namesake restaurant Susur in 2000, followed in 2004 by his second restaurant, Lee, next door. While Susur is a fine dining establishment, offering a combination of classical French and Chinese cuisine, Lee Restaurant focuses on new Asian urban cuisine - Southeast Asian with a European background - served in an upbeat atmosphere.

Also participating in the culinary event are Michael Ginor of Hudson Valley Foie Gras from New York, Steven Snow of Fins Restaurant from Sydney, Roberto Donna of Galileo from Washington DC, Suzanne Tracht of JAR Restaurant from Los Angeles and Katrina Kanetani of Pier Restaurant from Sydney.

The event is coordinated and overseen by Four Seasons' executive chef Nicolas Schneller, Shintaro's Satoshi Sawada and Danilo Aiassa from Biscotti.

Each chef will host two evenings in one of the hotel's restaurants as well as a cooking demonstration either for lunch or dinner. All will be whipping up their special creations for the seven-course World Gourmet Gala Dinner on September 13.

The gala dinner promises to be a unique and memorable affair. A cocktail reception will take place from 7pm followed by the dinner and entertainment. A live auction will feature exciting travel prizes showcasing sister Four Seasons hotels around the globe.

Part of the proceeds will be donated to HRH Princess Somsavali's "Save a Child's Life from Aids Project" under the auspices of the Thai Red Cross Society, which provides medicine for pregnant mothers afflicted with HIV/Aids.