Innovative Thai dining experience with Takieng, Renaissance Phuket Resort & Spa x Blue Elephant

Holiday-makers as well as local visitors to Marriott’s five-star Renaissance Phuket Resort & Spa can now savour a new innovative Thai food dining experience inspired by the island’s culinary heritage.

In collaboration with Blue Elephant (purveyors of Thai cuisine worldwide) its multi award-winning Takieng Thai restaurant has launched a special menu based on a Blue Elephant curry paste with Phuket origins, known as ‘Tumee’. And the result is really excellent, also bringing further attention to South Thailand’s cuisine – in this case inspired by the ‘Peranakan’ culture and Indian-Malay roots.

The Phuketian heritage recipe for Tumee constitutes the key ingredient for this special menu created by Takieng and Renaissance’s culinary team, based on its own style.

Chef Jakub Mares (recently arrived) and Chef Seng Thananan Kitprayool, the Executive Chef and Executive Sous Chef at Renaissance Phuket Resort & Spa, have come up with seven creative dishes that showcase an assortment of local ingredients such as Mai Khao Sand Crab, Pak Lin Harn, and Sea Grapes using a variety of cooking techniques with eye-catching modern presentations. Through these dishes the chefs highlight the original Tumee flavour as part of creative and modern plating styles and Thai cooking with a twist.

Promoting Phuket culture

The main goal of this collaboration is to preserve and revive traditional Thai food – especially local heritage recipes – for younger generations and to promote Phuket’s rich culinary history to tourists and visitors.

In addition to the 100% natural Thai ingredients, Blue Elephant’s Tumee curry paste also includes 3 superfoods – Thai black garlic, fenugreek seeds, and garcinia for extra goodness.

The dishes are as follows: Goong Chae Nam Pla (Raw sea-prawns Tumee with pineapple essence); Yum Som O Pooh (Blue crab, pomelo salad with sea-grapes); Gai Ko Lae (Smokey lemongrass grilled chicken); Thod Mun Goong Jakkajan (Tumee shrimp croquetes Mai Khao sand crab); Pla Kra Pong Phak Peun Muang (Roasted Sea Bass, local greens, and cockle mushroom in Tumee coconut cream); Gaeng Tumee Nue (Braised beef cheek, purple potato & lin harn greens, seared purple potato, coconut smoked Tumee sauce); and Seared Purple Potato (Coconut smoked Tumee, cockle mushroom, sea-grapes, Tumee coconut sauce).

“This is an additional à la carte menu on top of our popular classic menu at Takieng. We will see what feedback we’ll get from our guests, keep developing our menu and add some more excitement to bring Takieng to the next level,” says Chef Jakub Mares (from the Czech Republic).

With his extensive experience and a huge repertoire of various cooking techniques Chef Jakub Mares has arrived to share his years of expertise and to lead the Beverage & Food team at Renaissance Phuket Resort & Spa to even greater heights of culinary innovation, customer satisfaction and excellence.

“Having such a special and rare opportunity to work with this Phuket heritage was such an exciting project and honour for our team and me. We had to make sure the menu would stand out in term of presentation yet also represent the authentic flavour of the Tumee,” continues chef Jakub.

Renaissance Phuket informs that guests can enjoy local food and local ingredients in any Marriott hotel or resort, as it is one of their goals to promote and highlight local foods to the guests. The particular Phuket resort is simply working on a larger scale of an “exciting collaboration” together with the Thai culinary global ambassador Blue Elephant.

More excitement to come

“Takieng delivering amazing authentic flavours for over 10 years is what it has become famous for. With the arrival of our new Thai Master Chef Thum and the creativity supported by our Executive Sous Chef Seng Thananan, as well as the collaboration with our partners such as Blue Elephant, there are many exciting projects which will combine authentic flavours and elaborate more exciting to surprise and delight our diners’ experience,” says Mr Jakub.

“Innovative cuisine as direction is what we are aiming for; preserving the original DNA in locally sourced ingredients and authentic flavours, upgrading the whole new Thai dining experience and driving Takieng to the next level – with the Takieng x Blue Elephant as a pilot project. There will be more surprises to come!”

It is also noteworthy that Blue Elephant’s restaurant in Phuket town offers cooking classes for the public at its mansion. “With Blue Elephant being the leader in Thai cooking classes, we have many things to learn from Chef Noroor and her Team, and with our collaboration this could be a great direction moving toward,” responds the chef in that context.

Renaissance Phuket’s culinary team also collaborates with local farms, beekeepers, workshops as well as local fishermen to bring the freshest and finest ingredients to serve our guests. In doing so the resort can bring the best of what Phuket and Thailand has to offer onto the guest’s table.
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Renaissance hotels and resorts’ concept is to speak to passionate travellers in search of authentic local discoveries when travelling. Renaissance always helps to connect guests to their destinations.

“At Renaissance Phuket Resort & Spa, we welcome guests to our unique design resort where they can enjoy an aesthetic architecture that is smoothly blended with the beauty of the surrounding nature. Our skilled Navigator (hotel concierge) also helps recommending local favourite spots for guests to explore and help them to create unexpected memorable moments and complete their trip with a new sense of the destination,“ states the resort.

Signature restaurant Takieng is well-known among locals and tourists for many years for its classic Thai and authentic Southern Thai cuisine. Many awards and recognitions include the Phuket’s Top 25 Restaurants by Travelindex in cooperation with Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and ranked number 2 countrywide for Top Everyday Eats category in TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Best of The Best Awards 2021.

Takieng restaurant is open daily from 17.30 – 22.30hrs.