Thailand

• Lissom with mother - Chiva Som, Thailand
• Perfect harmony - Chiva Som, Thailand
• Battle of the Beaches - Thailand
• Bliss on the beach - Koh Samui
• Freshly Squeezed - Thailand
• Kaleidascope - Bangkok
• Why Our travels with Banana - Bali
• Beautiful Bali looks back to the future - Bali
• Off the Bhutan track - Bhutan
• The Temples of Another Time - Cambodia
• Temple of Secret Smiles - Cambodia
• Celebrity check-in - Langkawi
• My Perfect Moment - Pangkor Laut
• Fantasy Island - Pangkor Laut
• Feast for all the senses - Bali
• On Honeymoon Island, strictly alone at last - Phuket
• Our Ho Chi Honeymoon - Vietnam
• Victory for Vietnam - Vietnam
• You like! You try! - Vietnam
• Why I'll always miss Saigon - Vietnam
• Hanoi's New Dawn - Hanoi
• Saigon Surprise - Ho Chi Minh
• I spy in Shanghai - China
• Shanghai Chic - China
• The Great Makeover - China
• Far East in a Flash - China & Japan
• Cherie blossom special - Japan
• Why they call Hong Kong toy town - Hong Kong
• Mysteries of the secret gardens - Kyoto
• The Geisha Game - Kyoto
• Hong Conquerer! - Hong Kong

RAYMOND BLANC is holding court at the dinner table. This may not seem unusual behaviour from the chef patron of the double Michelin-starred Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons, but this particular evening meal is not taking place in a restaurant.

Instead, we are in the first-class cabin of an aircraft bound for Abu Dhabi.

Raymond is regaling an audience of three with indiscreet tales about fellow chefs while admiring the selection of wines on Etihad’s Diamond Class menu.

The national carrier of the United Arab Emirates has seats which can rotate through 180 degrees, enabling four passengers to meet or dine together.

It seems an appropriate way to make the acquaintance of a culinary legend, as he takes it upon himself to give each dish on the menu marks out of 10 while entertaining us with his mischievous sense of humour.

We are not heading for the Gulf, however. Our destination is a three-hour drive from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport – a pioneering health resort Blanc visited when it opened in 1995.

‘I fell in love with the concept and philosophy of Chiva-Som 12 years ago,’ he says. ‘I fell in love with Thailand, too. Its people are so beautiful, the food is so fresh, that’s why I keep coming back.’

A fragrant oriental cocoon

Now he is back to pave the way for a week-long visit to work alongside Chiva-Som’s award-winning spa cuisine chef Paisarn Cheewinsiriwat, who will return the favour by visiting Le Manoir.

Arriving at the resort near the coastal city of Hua Hin after a long journey is like stepping into a fragrant Oriental cocoon. A flurry of smiling staff rush to greet us with bracelets made from roses and jasmine blooms before showing us to our pavilion rooms, built in traditional Thai style, ranged around a carp-filled ornamental lake and set in immaculate gardens. A sanctuary of polished wood and marble awaits, filled with orchids and the scent of lemongrass oil.

Any notion of succumbing to jet lag melts away as I sit down to eat the nutritious threecourse meal waiting in the room while filling in an extensive health and fitness questionnaire. Every guest has a private consultation on arrival to identify what they want to achieve from their visit, be it pure relaxation, stress or weight management, improved health or fitness.

A consultant talks you through the dizzying choice of treatments, from body wraps, facials and all manner of massages through to the more medical live blood or body composition analysis.

Katrina, my adviser, recommends four treatments to complement my daily massage, and I haven’t even started to look at the list of daily classes, the indoor bathing pavilion or the multi-level steam room.

Then there’s always my private terrace and outdoor seating area to contemplate if I want to relax and enjoy the warmth of the tropical sunshine.

Just being at Chiva-Som, which means ‘haven of life’, makes you feel reflective; and the fact that no mobiles or laptops (or children under 16) are allowed helps maintain peace and tranquility.

All the food served is of the highest quality and the majority of the fruit and vegetables is grown in the resort’s own organic garden.

Award winning cuisine

The main event of the trip is Paisarn cooking us a special dinner to showcase Chiva-Som’s award-winning gourmet cuisine. For this, I join Monsieur Blanc at the Taste of Siam restaurant, overlooking the beach.

Exquisite dishes appear under the light of the full moon, including a melt-inthe- mouth, buttery sea bass marinated in sweet miso, beef shank Thai-style and exquisite coconut ice cream with jasmine cake.

Blanc voices his admiration, telling us how his own recipes are still French but with other influences, many of them inspired by Thai and Japanese cooking.

Like his counterpart at Chiva- Som, Blanc is a perfectionist who has even turned to chemistry to understand ‘molecular gastronomy’ and the science of flavour.

At sunrise the next day I accompany the two chefs to a market to select the food they will cook in a joint demonstration back at the resort.

Snacking on delicate Thai pancakes made with coconut milk and palm sugar, and walking past mounds of dried fish, the chefs look for inspiration and the freshest produce among the riot of colour, smells and textures.

They settle on squid and snapper for the main course and tropical fruits with black sticky rice for dessert. After our scheduled daily treatments, the show kitchen is prepared. Blanc, now in his chef’s uniform, looks as if he’s psyching himself up and begins pacing the floor.

Once behind a chopping board, he is in his element. Blanc says: ‘Thai cuisine is renowned for its simplicity and French food is not just about gastronomy, it is also about family food. Both cultures are very close.’

Bringing the cultures even closer, he prepares his dish of snapper with pan-fried squid and a bouillabaisse sauce served with fennel wihile marinating papaya and mango for a tropical fruit brochette with guava sabayon.

Ying and yang

‘I always think of the joy of eating, the taste, then of the nutrients,’ Blanc says. ‘Prepare properly then practise on family you don’t like very much! And always use the best olive oil, it is a gift from God.’

He speaks with great emphasis and passion, so much so that at times he seems fit to burst. ‘The golden rule is that ingredients are everything – without that you won’t have great food,’ he says, gesticulating wildly.

‘Great food is complicated simplicity.’ Paisarn gently demonstrates how quick and easy it is to cook Thai food such as tom kha gai (herbed chicken coconut soup).

‘I try to make it simple so people don’t think it will take too much time,’ he says.

‘Healthy food makes you shine and feeds your mind.’ And if the svelte, serene staff of Chiva-Som are anything to go by, he’s absolutely right.

The two chefs are like yin and yang but it’s a privilege to watch them at work and the food they produce is in absolute harmony – and so am I after four days of rebalancing, relaxation and education at this fragrant, first-class oasis of calm.