We might talk about top Asian restaurants in Paris?
We have our favorite Chinese place but beyond
that I know from nothing. Any recommendations??

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French Chef Stirs Up APEC Cuisine With Vietnamese Touches
World

by Playfuls Team

When Vietnam was looking for a chef to prepare world-class cuisine for 21
leaders gathering for this week's Asia-Pacific summit, it turned to a
Frenchman.

Not just any French chef, though. Didier Corlou, executive chef of the
Sofitel Metropole hotel in Hanoi, is a passionate expert on Vietnamese fare
whose work mixing haute cuisine with local staples has been awarded a medal
from the Association of Vietnamese Folklorists.

"This is our chance to show off our Vietnamese cuisine," said Corlou, 50, a
native of Brittany who has lived in Hanoi for 15 years, is married to a
Vietnamese woman, also a chef, and has written five books on Vietnamese
cooking.

This week found Corlou in the kitchen of Sofitel Plaza, the Metropole's
sister hotel, poring over the menus for five state dinners and a gala
banquet for all 21 leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) summit.

"My idea is to mix the traditional and the contemporary, the tastes of the
leaders with Vietnamese touches like fish sauce and tamarind," he said.

Thus, Chinese President Hu Jintao is to be served shark-fin soup with a dash
of Vietnamese "nuoc mam," a pungent fermented fish sauce.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is to dine on salmon made into an upscale
"pho" noodle soup.

US President George W Bush is to get veal tenderloin - "a little bit
American; it's normal," said Corlou - but with pumpkin-flower flan and a
green tea-and-citrus sauce.

"I have to have a separate menu for each because the Vietnamese president
[Nguyen Minh Triet] has to be at each meal and can't eat the same thing
twice," Corlou explained.

The chef is marshalling an army of more than 450 waiters for the gala
dinners that mark the yearly APEC gathering and is preparing separate
buffets for more than 600 people.

On Tuesday, Corlou was busy showing his Vietnamese staff how to prepare one
of the buffet dishes, flash-fried prawns in a sauce of tamarind and fish
sauce.

He tossed a handful of fresh coriander into a deep fryer for a count of
five, then fished the crispy greens out with a slotted spoon and sprinkled
them as garnish onto the prawns - "coriander, not parsley," he stressed.
"We're in Vietnam."

For Corlou, showcasing Vietnamese food at the APEC summit marks a long
comeback for a national cuisine that survived long years of war and a decade
of poverty.

When he first arrived in Hanoi in the early 1990s, Vietnamese themselves
were just rediscovering their own cuisine. The years of rice rationing meant
that even spare rice to make noodles was rare.

But as the communist government's "doi moi," or "renewal," economic reforms
loosened up bans on private business and people became wealthier, food
stalls and restaurants began returning to the traditional cuisine.

"For me, Vietnamese food is "pho," fish sauce and rolling fresh spring
rolls," Corlou said. "It's the ultimate Zen food and spa food with delicate
spices, not too spicy, and fresh herbs and not so much fried.

A new generation of young Vietnamese chefs is even starting to innovate. For
example, a new rage in Hanoi is "pho cuon," a dish that takes all the
ingredients of pho - beef, spices, herbs and wide flat noodles - leaves out
the broth, and lets customers roll up their own mini-spring rolls

"Vietnamese food is becoming more mature, and yet we still have all the good
street food that's very creative too," Corlou said. "I tell every chef here
I meet: Create, create, create."

by Kay Johnson