David Thompson at the World Gourmet Festival

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to attend a lunchtime cooking demonstration by acclaimed Thai food expert David Thompson. Thompson wrote the well-known English-language cookbook Thai Food. And his London restaurant, Nahm, was the first Thai restaurant to receive a Michelin star. He’s in Bangkok as a featured chef at the 10th Annual World Gourmet Festival, held at the Four Seasons.

In the image above, which was snapped by Bangkok’s own foodie photog Austin Bush, I was helping Thompson prepare — and enthusiastically sampling — a chili paste to use in a khanom jeen noodle dish.

You can find more images, the recipe, and a thorough description of the event at this post on Austin’s site. ((By the way, Austin’s attending all of the WGF events and is food-blogging up a storm. Don’t miss this post, about last night’s dinner, which was prepared by Graham Elliot Bowles. Sadly, I didn’t attend that session.))