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Published on December 12, 2007

Montpellier is the vibrant capital of the Languedoc in the south of France. It boasts a long Mediterranean coastline and more than 300 days of sun a year.

As well as being rich in history and culture, it is home to the renowned Le Jardin des Sens restaurant, owned by the famous culinary twins Jacques and Laurent Pourcel.

While Le Jardin des Sens at Montpellier is designed to take full advantage of the weather, with broad windows overlooking a garden, its sister restaurant, D'Sens in Thailand, sits at the top of Bangkok's Dusit Thani Hotel, overlooking the skyline and bustling streets.

The menu is superbly executed by Alsace-native Philippe Keller, who shows modern French cuisine is delicate and delicious and should be a vital art de vivre people can afford to enjoy from time to time.

Keller, who joined D'Sens more than two years ago as its second chef de cuisine, explains the "twin brothers represent modern French cooking made from an array of ingredients from all over the world".

D'Sens at Dusit Thani, established in 2004, is a collaboration between the hotel and the brothers. It's their second restaurant in Asia. The other is in Tokyo. Before landing in Bangkok, Keller spent weeks in the Montpellier kitchen, observing its specific cooking styles.

My encounter with D'Sens cuisine was with Montpellier natives Dominique Klepandy and Francoise Binder.

Keller specially designed our eight-course menu with selected dishes from their a la carte specialities. D'Sens manager Jean Yves Fraiche chose French wines for each course.

Our fabulous dinner, with dishes made from international ingredients, lasted four hours.

Keller speaks regularly with the Pourcels and reaches out for the best French ingredients for his Bangkok kitchen. He served us amuse bouche, a palette trigger of marinated scallops; and an appetiser of creamy, fatty Japanese tuna belly marinated in peanut oil. Fraiche served lemon-gold 2002 Chateau de la Negly La Brise Marine to go with the oily tuna.

Binder and Klepandy are an enthusiastic culinary couple who cook at home, and often serve up a full-blown family gathering with lots of wine.

Here, they swirl the newly poured tipples in their glasses, talk about their bouquets - peppery, intense or complex - and note their brilliant body. Then they discuss their combinations, and it's all done without even a hint of pomposity.

"If you like any wine with any food, that's your choice," says Binder, who claims to be the better cook.

"We like food and we always source good wines to match what we make at home. It's just what we do; the thing we appreciate and enjoy in our lives."

And here at D'Sens, the Keller and Fraiche team can make an encounter with French cuisine memorable and meaningful.

Fraiche, a Narbonne native, is lively and friendly. He patiently explains to me the fabulous Vin de gel Domaine les Peyrilles, the aromatic and delicate sweet wine served with the equally delicate foie gras dish in a red-wine emulsion.

The wine, he says, is special because it's made from handpicked, overripe and very sweet grapes. The grapes are left on the vine until the first frost.

"The sun makes harvests from the south of France more flavourful," says Keller. "For example, tomatoes, zucchini, dill, basil and figs taste much better from the south, thanks to the amount of sun they get."

A la plancha means fast grilling on hot metal. It brings out the flavour of ingredients with less oil. Maine lobster, Mediterranean bass and Challans duck breast, in this case, are roasted a la plancha for hearty, yet healthy dining.

D'Sens is lucky to have Keller, who has a flair for international flavours but at the same time keeps his French cooking intact. Signing off for the night, he displays full French flair with the amazing Fig Symphony, a dessert of figs prepared four ways - in juice, in shortbread with vanilla cream in a marinade with balsamic vinegar, and in sherbet.

D'Sens is a wonderful, romantic place for dinner, and its set lunch is affordable for a bit of everyday art de vivre at Bt520 to Bt650 per person. The set includes an amuse bouche, your choice of soup or salad, a main dish and a dessert.

You might want to order tea or coffee; it's served with the house's fabulous specialities of chocolate truffles, lavender-infused marshmallows, air-light macaroons and - my favourite - lemon meringues.

D'Sens, 22/F, Dusit Thani Hotel, Rama IV, Call (02) 200 9000 or visit www.dusit.com. For Montpellier's sunny attractions, visit www.sunfrance.com.

Sirin P Wongpanit

 The Nation