20 June 2007: Working and Working

The first draft ideas of every student were presented to us yesterday.. today we begins in the morning from 9 am. The students work on formulating their idea into an object.

Our great supporters from Jim Thomson Art Center, Tan and Now. We are fed with good lunch, snacks and drinks all day long.

Some students begin to work on sketch models.. with a lot of documentations.


Some have great computer modelling skill... they spend most of their time in front of computers.


Anne, Pim and I were orbitting around the students all day long, from one to another.. until the last students left around 9 pm.!

This is what we teachers do in the afternoon when our brain cell start to die...we do research on stick food!... The grilled pork/chicken/liver on stick and sticky rice (so many sticks now..) sold in front of our building... an experience for farang : )




We, the three teachers, went for our cool dinner of Koren Barbeque, Thai style. very yummy. ! Anne also learned many Thai utensils such as the grill pan where you can grill the meat and boil the vegetable at the same time... :)
This is soup too... , see, we're working even during dinner!

18 June 2005: The First Day of the Workshop

Finally the workshop began.
Anne Xiradakis arrived on Sunday morning, Pim and I met her to prepare the workshop and had dinner together - it was a Thai dinner, of course, at Talingpling Restaurant at Pan Road. Anne got a quite an introduction to Thai food!


The first day of the workshop started with Anne's lecture at Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University. There were around 150s students and people at the lecture. It was quite successful indeed. Her lecture was divided into two parts: the first part was about her works where you can find in her website, the second part was about a historical survey of food+soup culture in France - very interesting indeed, I also learned that the French got a very sophisticate table set from Russia!



After the lecture, we met the students from 3 universities: Chulalongkorn, King Mongkut Thonburi and King Mongkut Lakrabang. We gave them a brief to make an exploration + investigation about Thai food and eating culture with images, sketches and so on. Besides, they had to do a shopping for cooking 'a soup' for the evening dinner altogether - it was quite an event.

After lunch at Jim Thompson House where Anne had a chance to meet Jeab (Gridtiya), our Thai curator and to see the house, we went also for a shopping for some ingredients Anne needed for her 'soup' at Siam Paragon, one of the supermarket lover's paradise....

Around 5 pm. we arrived to VER Gallery where we would have the cooking session and the dinner party altogether. The Gallery is owned by Rirkrit Tiravanija where there are always nice and interesting people around. It is situated next to Chao Phraya River, next to Millenium Hilton Hotel but surrounded by very local market and the traffic of people going in and out from the ferry - very interesting location.

The gallery is equipped with quite a full-option kitchen for cooking our dinner.


The students were having fun preparing their soups. Every couple had to make one soup + Anne's soup, we ended up having eight kinds of soup!


The bitter melon stuffed with mince and spices soup... it was the first time them to make it!

The ingredients for 'Palo Soup'. They were boiling the stock.

To make a simple clear soup with egg sausage 'more design', the students painted the egg sausage with food colors! I was very impressed.


While waiting for the soup to be read, we were having fun, food and wine.

The first soup was ready- Tom Yam Kung with Fondue style! Very creative :)


Clear soup with seaweed, mince balls and egg sausage. The other one is Tom Kha Kai!

This one is Squid with lime and garlic soup.. I am not so sure if it is soup.. it is something in between.

"Jab Chai" or 10-Vegetable Soup. It is a Chinese origin, very convenient if you have a lot left over...


Finally the bitter melon soup is finished too... although it took them quite sometime.

Anne's Soup, Tomato Soup with little alphabet pasta - she got the recipe from her grandmother!


A little technical problem happened while the cooking process was going on: the gas was finished! it was too late to get a replacement, so a guy from Ver Gallery made this three chachoal stoves for us! Very impressive indeed. Anne also cooked her soup on this stove!


Everything was ready... we had them all...It was unbelievable that we could cook and ate them all...very good and pleasant. :) Although it was quite hot from the food and the weather....


As the Chinese say, every party will come to the end... we ended everything with dish washing session. The students were doing well...


At the end, we all were hot, exhausted and super full... Our beloved curator, Jeab, said ...'it is a paradise in hell'. Our experience of the moment, Bangkok in general, both could fit perfectly with the sentence. Here is the picture from the window of the gallery before we left. Paradise in Hell...


Let's see what the students would show us for their first presentation...:) We were all excited.

The Place and the Plate: the workshop

THE PLACE AND THE PLATE
A blend inspired by the East and the West, modernity and tradition, heritage and innovation: the similarities between Jim Thompson’s life, house and this project are so striking that “La Fête” could not have found a better “place” to serve its “plates”.
As Jim Thompson did in boosting up the silk industry by modernising it while keeping up its strong traditional identity., numerous designers have also used their culture in order to create a future that is rooted and makes references to the past, as they are faced to a world that is more and more homogeneous and standardized, by suggesting a new approach to the French tableware.

Accompanied by a background sound effect which brings out a culinary atmosphere, the exhibition will show videos of bars and restaurants that have been created by designers and will compare typical French and Thai tableware pieces and their role in enhancing creativity and know-how, in encouraging innovation. Thus the permanent pursuit of a new energy will be highlighted by reinterpreting tradition, integrating the use new techniques, new methods and new productions forms. In Thailand where the culinary art and ultra modern designs are of the essence, the “Place and the Plate” will find its place naturally!

Being the spearhead of “Fooding” = Food + Feeling), term invented by Alexandre Cammas at the beginning of the year 2000 to evoke alternative gastronomy by combining a pleasing atmosphere with pleasurable food(the pleasure of the place and the plate), the imagination of designers compete with the biggest table-ware factories.
Thus, to conclude this fourth edition, “La Fête” will invite its guests to taste a healthy menu created in the breast-shaped moulds of the artist, Pinare Sampitak for the pleasure the pupils and the taste buds.

Workshops will be organized before the exhibition period and for the opening ceremony with French designer Cédric Rogot and Anne Xiradakis and Thai designers: Rachaporn Choochuey and Pim Sudhikam.