“If you would like to have time to talk with our chef, Joannès Rivière, I would advise to come a bit earlier, around 6.30pm, or later around 8.30pm.” Carole Salmon replied a day after I made a reservation from Indonesia for dinner on Tuesday, a busy time for Cuisine Wat Damnak.

The restaurant’s dégustation menus change every Tuesday so that Chef Rivière can continuously serve local seasonal produce available.

Cuisine Wat Damnak the creation of Carole Salmon and Joannès Rivière has only been in business for less than 2 years. The eatery, however, has been featured in a number of prestigious international media and respected food blogs such as The Wall Street Journal, The Condé Nast Traveller, and The Financial Times.

“My idea is to cook Cambodian food using local ingredients in a European style,” Chef Rivière explained passionately when we met. “I now worked with some organizations to supply vegetables, but I go to the market to get fish, chicken and meat,” he continued.

Chef Rivière should have no trouble choosing the best. Having lived in Cambodia for 10 years he speaks fluent Khmer.

He laughed when I asked whether he decided to stay in Siem Reap because the city is a gateway to the famous temple of Angkor Wat. “No…no....no…I live here, my house is nearby.”

The French born chef first learned to cook when he was a young child. Joannès went to the United States and worked as a pastry chef before arriving in Siem Reap to teach underprivileged young Cambodians at Sala Bai Hotel School.

His book, Cambodian Cooking: A humanitarian project in collaboration with Act for Cambodia, published in 2008 became a classic. I bought the book in Siem Reap, delighted in the plethora of recipes from snacks and appetizers, salads, soups and stews, stir-fries, barbeques and roasts to desserts.

Cuisine Wat Damnak, located off the main road, looks like an ordinary dwelling with tropical gardens. Once inside there are a variety of sitting choices for guests: an air conditioned European style dining room, an open wooden room with a traditional sitting on the floor, or outside in an aromatic garden.

The restaurant offers 2 different set of tasting menus. Tasting Menu 1 is a five-course meal while Tasting Menu 2 is a six-course meal. In an interview with Travelfish, Chef Rivière was clear:  “The essence of Cambodian food is its seasonality. A good, typical Cambodian meal is grilled fish, with lots of fresh herbs, vegetables and fruits that are actually in season.”

The amuse-bouche, one of my five-course meal, came first. It was really a teaser in terms of taste, texture and color. Crunchy cucumber mixed with torch ginger and something fluffy that turned out to be dried fish. The flavor of each ingredient complemented rather than contradicted each other.

When the next course arrived I tried to find the palm vinegar and star anise marinated chicken and pickled cabbage hidden beneath yellowish sprouts and puffed glass noodle. The chicken was chewy, giving me time to absorb the taste of star anise. Had it not been stated in the menu I would have guessed the chicken was marinated with soya sauce.

As I do not eat pork, Carole offered to replace the pork ribs and pineapple yellow curry with fresh rice vermicelli, Mekong langoustine and light coconut broth, banana blossom, herbs and flower.

Slowly devouring the dish, admiring each green herb and the blue flower petal in harmony with the reddish langoustine, I was feeling grateful to Mekong River for providing such delicacy.

The main dish was Tonle Sap croaker fish with vegetable and fresh rice flake porridge, smoked fish and lemon basil. The fish was special as it came from Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia.

I thought the five-course dinner would never end since treat after treat arrived, all full of surprises. Meringue for dessert looked familiar, but my sense of taste was perfected with pomelo kaffir lime curd and sorbet. The sour taste of the sorbet was a match for the sugary meringue.

Carole came and showed me a little plate with green bilimbi, red water apple and white coconut shoot with small heap of ground salt and pepper . “The bilimbi is very sour,” she warned.

The last delight was a dried pomelo sweets, which erased the previous flavors, but not the memory of a delectable dinner.

Sipping cooled coconut water with its natural sweetness, I sent my imaginary salute to Carole Salmon and Joannès Rivière for the innovative tasting menus. Indeed, the more harmonious the colors, the more subtle the flavor of the finished dish.

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Text: Amanda Katili

Images: Cuisine Wat Damnak, Omar Niode Foundation.