A paradox for the palate

David Thompson is back in Thailand not for his usual three-month visit but a full nine months - he's chosen Bangkok as the home of a second branch of Nahm, his restaurant in London that has the distinction of being Europe's only Michelin-star Thai restaurant.

"Yindee thi dai klap baan laew," he says by way of hello, announcing in fluent Thai his delight to be back in the land that enchants him.

Let's get the big question out of the way: Nahm London is posh and daunting in its prices, but the Bangkok version - scheduled to open in two months at the Metropolitan Hotel on Sathorn Road - will be "both accessible and affordable", Thompson declares.

That's thanks to ready access to farms, markets and other suppliers.

And that may be one reason the Australian chef is back. He's been travelling around the country searching for the right ingredients. Or Tor Kor is his favourite market in Bangkok ("It's been modernised and gentrified, the kind that I like").

"I found a fish farm in Singburi that raises snakehead fish in chemical-free rice paddies with nutritious water," Thompson enthuses.

Orchards, vegetable farms and places that bottle fish sauce, fermented pla raa and kapi shrimp paste get his seal of approval.

Thompson is the first to admit that what he cooks isn't "exactly the same as Thai food, in the sense that I'm a Westerner with a Western brain and a Western mouth".

But regardless, a chef's ingredients, he says, "are words of the language. You need those words to articulate the things you want to say. Skills help, but without the right ingredients, things are going to be garbled."

From the fridge Thompson extracts a few odds and ends, and points out the palm sugar from Phetchaburi. "Very sweet, delicious and good smell, right? Please taste it," he says.

We try his kapi from Samut Sakhon and pla raa from Singburi, and fragrant brown rice from Surin and Si Saket ("I like rice from the lower part of Isaan").

His fish sauce from Chanthaburi is made from top-quality fish fermented for two years with only salt. "Its very hom mak!" Thompson says, inhaling deeply.

Pla raa in a five-star hotel is a bit of a surprise, but Thompson uses it in London and says the British enjoy his kaeng tai plaa and kaeng khee lek, with their pungent pla raa scent.

His food in Bangkok will be more like the original, "coming to its roots", he says.

"We can go to various farmers, pick up stuff on our own. There's a lot more ingredients available in the market, some of which are harder to find in London.

"But the beef will be imported, as will some seafood, just because it tastes better, though I'll stick to local kai baan, the free-range chicken, which is meaty, smaller and tastier."

Thompson will be including recipes of old Siam on the menu - he's spent 20 years studying the history of Thai cuisine.

He shows us cookbooks he's collected that date back to the reign of King Rama V, when Western chefs would occasionally appear in the palace kitchen to help prepare diplomatic dinners.

Thompson has works by such notable court gourmets as MR Tueng Sanidvongse and MR Sadap Ladawan, one of the last concubines of Rama V.

"She died in the 1970s or '80s. It's a surprise to know that her nam prik long rua uses prik cheefah, not prik khee noo. I want to cook this stuff!"

He also has some funeral-keepsake booklets and almanacs containing venerable recipes. He's particularly fond of a first edition of the original Siamese cookbook, "Mae Krua Hua Paah" by Thanpuying Plian Bhaskornwong, published in 1908.

From these historical treatises, Thompson has gleaned such rare curry dishes as kaeng moo, kaeng doksomsiew, klaeng paa thaypho and hed cone tom koong, which will appear on the menu at Nahm.

The recipes are boran mak mak," he says, meaning very old. "Finding the fish and other ingredients mentioned in them is quite challenging."

Thompson enjoys the "paradox" of the cuisine - complicated ingredients and techniques that nevertheless "seem to resolve into something beautifully simple".

"Thai food confounds me at times. You have to juggle so many ingredients, and yet the end result is seamless elegance.

"It's not even paradox - it's damned bloody hard work!"

Whet the appetite

David Thompson has written two cookbooks about our cuisine, "Thai Food" and "Thai Street Food: Authentic Recipes, Vibrant Traditions".