Pity the poor restaurateur in the run-up to the launch of a restaurant. “If we build it, will they come?” they surely fret, as the busy weeks of hiring, renovations, dish-testing, and hair-tearing fly by. Kudos is therefore due to Australian chef Jess Barnes, whose new restaurant Quince is set to open around June 18 on Sukhumvit Soi 45. Rather than relying on the usual promotional tricks, Barnes has found time to get out into the city and do what he does best: cooking up playful, homely cuisine with an emphasis on quality local produce and that rare commodity – ethics.
“I’m constantly battling with what’s right and wrong, trying to make sense of it all,” says 32-year-old Barnes, who cut his teeth at Melbourne eatery Grossi Florentino and later opened Grossi at Bangkok’s Intercontinental. “I spent half of the last decade as a vegetarian. But as I got older I realized the reality is that most humans rely on animals in some form or another: leather, insulin, honey, rennet, milk, feather pillows, beetles for food coloring agents. Instead of maintaining a polarized view, I thought it would be better perhaps to make informed decisions in my life and career about sustainability, food ethics and waste and help educate others as time goes on.”
It’s this thinking that led to the first of two pop-up restaurants he has held in recent months: Lard-o-licious. Taking over opposite (it’s a lower-case kind of place) for two nights in March, Barnes set out to school decadent ol’ Bangkok in the principles of ethical livestock farming – and show off the weird and wonderful things a skilled chef can do with a thoughtfully farmed pig.
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The event was inspired by Barnes’s introduction to an Ubon Ratchathani-based pig farmer named Tony Macdonald, whose couldn’t-make-it-up surname Barnes acknowledges with a curt “no shit.”
“Tony’s farm focuses on symbiosis and organic philosophy,” says Barnes. “He breeds pigs to assist this, which coincidentally are some of, if not the best, porkers I’ve seen in the country. He treats these animals with love and respect. He doesn’t fill them up with chemicals and hormones – which coincidentally stay in our systems and accumulate, similar to mercury.”
To get this message across he enlisted the help of Bangkok-based illustrator Kathy MacLeod. Her faux-naive stylings and subtle sense of humor are winning her a growing cohort of fans in the city. Macleod crafted a short animation on the life of the pampered porker, commendably managing to avoid the preachiness that could have easily accompanied such an earnest endeavor. (Perhaps it also pre-empted this kind of thing… phew.)
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For his part, Barnes came up with a diverse and creative menu that used almost every part of his chosen swine. “My intention was never to appear hedonistic or gluttonous,” he explains. “I wanted to showcase Tony’s pigs, show that you can do more than bacon and ham with them, that the lesser cuts are enjoyable if you know how to take care of them.”
And so the lucky few at Lard-o-licious devoured a pig. All of it. Among the dishes were creations like “head cheese” – a pig jowl terrine bursting with flavor – and steamed buns with pulled pork shoulder, prawn mayo and slaw – Barnes’s playful take on the humble salapao. There was homely comfort food, such as pork cooked in milk, lovage and white beans (it was nice to see lovage, a Bangkok rarity, get some love). There were even a few surprises. A luxurious chocolate pudding turned out to contain a secret ingredient: pig’s blood.
For the second of his recent pop-ups, which took place on May 3, Barnes changed it up. This time he partnered with Lotus Arts de Vivre, the design company run by a dynasty of Bangkok society types, the von Buerens. What ensued was a party at the family’s gallery space on Rama III Road. And what did Barnes choose to cook for a resolutely hi-so crowd that might have emerged straight from the pages of Thailand Tatler? Street food, of course.
“It’s obvious Lotus’s appeal and demographic is somewhat different from some of the food we do, and what we are about at Quince,” he says. “But if we can put two concepts together, make it work and have some fun with it – why not?”
And so, set among the extravagant objets of the von Buerens were stalls dishing out humble – though hardly pedestrian – fare. Roast chicken with corn and a dreamy butter emulsion. Squid sandwiches with avocado, peas and streaks of fiery Sriracha sauce. And best of all, a lamb broth with mushroom dumplings, pickled mushrooms and basil that came off like a European re-imagining of bamee giao.
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Barnes’s new venture, then, is an intriguing prospect. Whence the name? “Quince is one of the oldest cultivated fruits and a little unusual to some people, with an unmistakable flavor,” he says. “It’s my favorite fruit to work with. Pastes, tarts, jams, cakes, sorbets; with meat, cheese, fish… it covers all bases.”
As with the fruit, so with the restaurant. Covering all bases – or at least a bunch of them – seems to be Quince’s goal. “We aim to be a casual eatery and bar with a focus on quality ingredients, sustainability and freshness… We want people to be able to come in anytime of the day and eat alone, share at the table, have a late night snack with drinks or something sweet and a coffee in the afternoon.”
So it looks like Barnes has his work cut out – especially with Ian Kittichai’s Smith set to open on nearby Soi 49. “I don’t think there will be anything like Quince in Bangkok,” he says. “We have put a lot of hard work into our baby and want to make a difference: good food, drinks and wine without being stuffy. Approachable to a broad demographic; food that is familiar yet new.” Sounds refreshing, no?
