Blue Elephant is perhaps Thailand’s oldest international restaurant chain - it currently has 5 branches: Sathorn & Sukhumvit in Bangkok, Phuket, Malta and Copenhagen. Blue Elephant was founded back in 1980 by Nooror Somany, an enterprising Thai woman from Chachoengsao province, east of Bangkok.
Khun Nooror had gone to Brussels at the behest of her brother, who was studying hotel management at one of the schools there at the time. She ended up marrying Belgian antiques dealer, M. Karl Steppe, whose shop her brother was working part-time at. The couple had a daughter and two sons - Sandra, Kim and Chris, who now work/manage the chain.
The Steppes had opened L’Éléphant Bleu in 1980 together with two veteran Brussels-based Thai restaurateurs, Somchai Wayno and Somboon Insusri.
I first ate at L’Éléphant Bleu during a business trip to Brussels in 1992. I was with Singapore Airlines at the time, and was visiting our office at Zaventem airport. My Belgian colleagues wanted to take me out for an “exotic” meal one evening, and we ended up there. It was a stunningly beautiful restaurant, although the food was very much customised to suit Belgian tastes. That original Brussels outlet was gorgeous enough to be used as a film set for Roman Polanski’s 1992 erotic thriller, Bitter Moon (as the restaurant staff excitedly told us), starring Peter Coyote and two British actors - Hugh Grant and Kristin Scott Thomas - who’d soon act together again in “Four Weddings & a Funeral” (1994).
Blue Elephant/L’Éléphant Bleu subsequently opened branches in London and Paris (both now defunct). I was curious enough to go try its London outlet on Fulham High Street in 1994 - again, absolutely beautiful space, full of foliage, but with underwhelming overcooked, under-spiced Thai food. I remembered ordering an exotic-sounding “Floating Market” - essentially tom yum seafood soup, and an “Emerald Tower” - three tiers of bamboo baskets containing steamed vegetarian dumplings.
Blue Elephant’s homecoming was in 2002 when it opened in Bangkok, followed by this Phuket branch in 2010. The Phuket restaurant is gorgeous, occupying a 120-year-old mansion which used to belong to a Siamese tin mining tycoon, Phra Pitak Chinpracha.
Our lunch consisted of:
STARTERS
Giam Goi - steamed rice pudding, topped with blue swimmer crab, crispy shallots and drizzled with tamarind-chilli sauce.
Sam Bai Kor Leang - tiger prawns, bird’s-eye chillis, garlic & sea grapes “caviar”.
Andaman Fish Cake - king mackerel, cocoa flakes, house red curry sauce, kaffir lime leaves.
SOUP
Karee Mai Fan - free-range chicken simmered in fresh coconut milk, foie gras, house curry and rice noodles.
Maprow Oon Coconut Soup - free-range chicken, coconut milk, galangal, lemongrass, and fresh young coconut flesh.
MAINS
“Sloane” prime organic pork belly, served with rice berry “mantou” buns, chilli-lime dressing, pako fern, “koong siab” Phuket preserved shrimp, smoked coconut husk.
Peranakan Tumee King Mackerel - with house fenugreek curry, served with okra, coconut creme, “phao liang” grilled sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves, and stuffed with “Ching Chung fish” chilli-relish.
Chef Nooror’s Massaman Lamb - Australian lamb with house Massaman curry paste, coconut juice, fresh ginger, and palm sugar, garnished with cashew nuts & drizzled with coconut creme. Served with roti.
DESSERT
Tubo - Andaman bird’s nest, azuki beans, sweet potato, taro, gingko, sweetened coconut creme.
Food’s pretty average Thai cooking but, as always, Blue Elephant’s claim-to-fame has always been its palatial ambience. The foreign tourists generally lap it all up.
Address
Blue Elephant Phuket Cooking School & Restaurant
Krabi Road 96, Talat Nuea, Phuket 83000, Thailand
Tel: +66 76 354 355
Opening hours: 11.30am-2.30pm, 5.30pm-9.30pm
