Chef Sainisa “Jay” Sangsinkaew Opens Stage, A New Restaurant in Ekamai Complex, Bringing the Ex-Team of L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon Bangkok With Her

          Since the great Chef Joël Robuchon passed away, the restaurant also bearing his name disappeared from the scene. L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon Bangkok acquired a 1 Michelin-Star in 2016, 2017 and 2018 in Thailand but eventually closed on the 1st May 2019. 

 

 
 
 
 
 
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          The only Thai who ever interned at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon Paris (2 Star Michelin) and held the position of Head Chef at the previous Bangkok branch was Chef Sainisa “Jay” Sangsingkaew. Chef Jay was saddened to part ways with her beloved Robuchon Bangkok crew, but her idea of reuniting them again led to the birth of Restaurant STAGE which opened in November 2019. 

          Bangkok Foodies sat down with the chef herself, where we could witness the crew preparing dinner service for that night, to ask about how she moved from working in the restaurant under the legend’s name to starting her own journey.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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BFK: As a former Chef of L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon Bangkok, Do you aim to continue his legacy?

Chef Jay: No, unfortunately. STAGE doesn’t aim to continue Chef Joël Robuchon’s legacy. Chef Robuchon was a great chef and we all respect him, everyone respects him. He is one of the legends. And being chosen to work in that institute was an honour and privilege. The place gave us a lot. But the place focused on traditional French cuisine while here, we could call our style Modern European cuisine with French technique.

BFK: STAGE [staʒ] is quite a name, isn’t it? What is the story behind the name?

Chef Jay: As you can see, the crew here are young and we were once trainees or interns from other restaurants before our reunion. The word ‘stage’ [staʒ] means trainee or intern in French. Also, the word ‘stage’ in English means a place when the performance takes place or a place where performers present performance. As you can see, our kitchen is visible for our customers to see our performance and the decor is similar to some small theatre. 

 

 
 
 
 
 
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BFK: What drove you to open your own restaurant?

Chef Jay: It’s every chef’s dream to own their restaurant. After working under other people and brands and gathered all the knowledge and experience, my former Robuchon Bangkok crew and I sat down and decided that the time was right.

BFK: Why the Robuchon Bangkok crew?

Chef Jay: Because we understand each other and get along very well. From my experience, we were a great team, we are great together. You know, our menu doesn’t come from me but all of us. We helped develop our menu.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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BFK: So you don’t have a hierarchy within your workplace?

Chef Jay: I wouldn’t say that. We are close and we share our ideas and help to create a menu but in order the achieve you have to have hierarchy and someone to lead and hold everything to reach the goal otherwise it’s going to be chaos. 

BFK: Using local ingredients is a thing now, are all of your ingredients are local or imported?

Chef Jay: Well, in our kitchen, we use both imported and local ingredients. We buy our ingredients only from the place where they are famous for.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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BFK: Since you mentioned about the ingredients, what comes first, ingredient or menu?

Chef Jay: We always start with the main ingredients first, then we come up with the menu. See, what’s in each season. You know if you start from there it’s easier to work on the dish. You get quality ingredients and save our coast at the same time.

BFK: How frequently do you change your menu?

Chef Jay: We change our menu every 2 months because we want our customers to come back and try new things. I don’t want them to get bored. Some restaurants use the same menus since they the first day they opened which could bore their customers. For me, I just want to keep our relationship with our customers fresh, also, many ingredients are seasonal so 2 months is reasonable. 

 

 
 
 
 
 
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          The rotation of our menu isn’t our only reasonable part but the prices as well. We have 3 types of tasting menu; 4 Course Tasting Menu, 6 Course Tasting Menu and STAGE Experience. 4 Course Tasting Menu costs 1,900 THB pluses wine pairing 900 THB, 6 Cours Tasting Menu costs 2,900 THB pluses wine pairing 1,400 and STAGE Experience costs 4,900 THB plus wine pairing 2,500 THB. It’s very affordable.

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Stage
359/2 Ekkamai Rd, Klongton, Watthana, Bangkok 10110

Tel: 02 002 5253

 

#WariyaI

Author: Wariya I.

     Author: Wariya I.
     Wariya has a strong passion for cocktails, and you may have met her several times but she likes to keep it casual and low-profile. She also likes to enjoy quality tea, especially Japanese green tea.