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How Did Arnaud Darc get to where he is today?

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Arnaud Darc (left), Thalias CEO, at the signature of partnership with Meridian International Holding, 2021.

An entrepreneur, a leader, a cultivator of talent, and a lighthouse for industry: how did Thalias CEO Arnaud Darc get to where he is today? We took a time-out with him to dig into some of the things that have influenced him, and how he keeps going underneath his many hats… We sat down with Thalias CEO Arnaud Darc to ask him some questions about leadership, switching off and why the mistakes we make can become the bedrock of future success. How would you define your leadership style? I see my main role as being to identify and nurture the innate talents that people have so that they can evolve and grow into their greatest potential for the good of themselves and at the same time for the good of the company. That idea is core to how Thalias has grown the way that it has, and continues to grow even in the face of recent crises. And it is a pleasure for me to see team members becoming the best versions of who they are, and achieving things that go far beyond what they themselves might ever have imagined. What one piece of advice would you give your younger self? Invest in yourself, and not just professionally, but also into your health and emotional wellbeing. It’s the surest way of having a long-lasting and positive impact on the people you live and work with, so it pays a double return. Do you have any hobbies that help you in your work? In the last few years I discovered running. I started in order to keep fit, and it does do that, but I find that it also helps me to disconnect from the surface stresses of running a large business and supporting the industry. Funnily enough, while I’m running my mind is not consciously focused on problems and decisions that I need to face, it’s focused on the road ahead. But while doing that, I tend to come up with solutions and answers that I might not have otherwise. What do you do if you want to completely switch off? Funnily enough, when I want to completely switch off, I sleep. I think it’s one of the most underrated human activities, which is a shame because it’s also one of the most necessary and beneficial. And by sleeping, I mean quality sleep, lots of it, and I work towards achieving that all day. It starts with getting up early in the morning, and getting a sunshine and vitamin-D boost while running or walking my dog, and I continue throughout the day with things like avoiding caffeine late in the day. I couldn’t do what I do without this. How important is it for executives and leaders to switch off from time to time? Essential. If you don’t, you risk burning out. We’re not machines and, at the end of the day, nothing is more important than your health, physical and mental. Without that, nothing can get done. What book has helped you the most to do your job? I think that Danny Meyers’ book Setting the Table is essential reading for anyone in this business, though much of what he says can be applied in any industry because wisdom is wisdom. It doesn’t need a specific context. What book(s) do you consider to be essential reading for someone who wants to progress in hospitality leadership? Setting the Table without a shadow of a doubt, but a podcast I never miss out on is the Huberman Lab podcast (https://hubermanlab.com). They discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life and work, and it has had a tremendous impact on me over the last two years. I love that we can now listen and learn as we go about our day using audio books and podcasts, and it has enriched my life immeasurably, both at and outside of work. What are your thoughts on mentors and whether people on the way up the ladder should seek one out? Again, essential for anyone who wants to really grow not just in an industry, but in themselves. A mentor has been around the block a few times, they can recognise where the pitfalls are, and help to guide you through them or around them. While good business is built on relationships, networks and communication, it can also feel very isolating especially when you’re faced with problems that you might not have encountered before. Choosing a good mentor with whom you can be frank and honest, who will not make decisions for you but guide you towards making the right decisions yourself, can make an enormous difference to your success or failure. Choose wisely, ask politely, respond graciously to their advice, and never fail to acknowledge their role. What is the most valuable trait that you look for in your team leaders? A willingness to try, and to try to do their best. Sometimes it’s not about the things you already know how to do, but about the things you’re willing to do that you might not have done before that really show whether you’ve got what it takes to get to the next level. It takes courage, confidence and belief in the future, and these qualities are what make a leader, not how good one is at presentations etc. And we learn more from those times when we put ourselves on the line. We’re more alert, more present because we don’t always know what to expect. These are the things we learn and grow the most from. What was the most important lesson you learned from a mistake you’ve made in the past and how did you turn your thinking about the mistake around? Mistakes are an unavoidable part of life, and if you’re not making mistakes from time to time, then you’re probably not actually living. But while they can feel hard in the moment, they’re also the strongest steps on your climb of the hill towards success. If you want to … Read more

One Ingredient to Bind Them: Foie Gras

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Le fois gras poêlé - Topaz.

There are few things more quintessentially French than a sublime sliver of silky smooth foie gras perched atop a slice of crisp baguette. This luxurious “fat liver” is one of our key ingredients at Topaz, and for very good reason… . At Topaz, we’ll soon be launching an exciting new menu where you’ll find some completely new dishes, some lively twists on old favourites, and some of your most-loved dishes just as you’ve always enjoyed them. As always, the menu is unmistakably French, as are the ingredients, one of which holds pride of place in all our hearts: Foie Gras. As smooth as pure satin, Foie Gras combines rich umami tones with a sweetish minerally flavour. Yet for all the richness and depth, its smooth, buttery texture gives it a melting, delicate quality. Foie Gras (“fat liver”) has long been a staple of the Gascon larder. Gascony, in the Southwestern corner of France, that borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Pyrenees mountains to the south, is one of the engine rooms of French cuisine, renowned not just for the quality and variety of the ingredients produced there, but also for the the methods of preparing, preserving and cooking them. It’s also breathtakingly beautiful in case you should be thinking of passing by. It is commonly, and most likely incorrectly, thought that the method of feeding ducks or geese in order to produce Foie Gras originated in Egypt. However, it is very likely true that the practice was brought to France by the Jews for whom it afforded a source of fat as dietary rules, kashrut, prohibited the consumption of lard, and often butter. In France, Foie Gras was first produced in Strasbourg but eventually made its way to Gascony, which has made an art, and today an industry, out of its production. At Topaz, we’ve integrated Foie Gras into a range of our dishes in order to add richness, depth of flavour, and a deliciously luxurious flourish. You’ll find it wrapped up in puff pastry with mushroom duxelles, truffles and fillet of beef for an iconic Beef Wellington—a feast for kings—or prepared with its very own tart and a deliciously tangy Périgueux sauce as a glorious opening starter for your meal, or once more wrapped up in a puff-pastry crust (the ultimate comfort food) together with black winter truffles, another Gascon speciality, and meltingly delicate veal sweetbreads. Alternatively, you could let the Foie Gras really take centre stage with two time-honoured ways of enjoying it. There is the simplest, with everything taken down to their its elements, Foie Gras à la Truffe en Terrine, a generous slice of umami-packed silk to be enjoyed with toasts, and perhaps shared with those you love most (if they’ve been good). Or you could heat things up a little with a Pan-seared Foie Gras with Caramelised Apples, a classic of French cuisine that marries the sublime richness of Foie Gras with the sweet-tart sauce. There’s a very good reason the French love this so much: it’s a sensational dish. And also a good one to remember the next time a French person tells you they can’t eat sweet & sour pork because they’re not used to mixing sweet and savoury in French cooking. Whatever you do, don’t miss out on trying it.

Presto a Siena! Real Italian Food…

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Giuseppe Napoletano, new chef at Siena in Flatiron, Phnom Penh

It’s ironic that one of the world’s best-loved foods is also one of its most not-so-much misunderstood, but rather under-understood. Italian cuisine has a great deal more to offer than pizza and pasta, and that’s what we’re looking forward to bringing you at Siena at Flatiron. We took a small dive into Italy’s incredibly rich and varied culinary history to give you a glimpse of what’s coming …. We’re really excited about the (coming soon!) opening of Siena at Flatiron, a brand-new Italian steakhouse rooted in real Italian ingredients and traditional Italian cooking from the north and south of the country, all served in a sophisticated contemporary setting with spectacular views across the whole of Phnom Penh city. The best of all worlds. We think it’ll be a terrific addition to Phnom Penh’s dynamic dining scene, and hope that you will too. Italian cuisine is one of the most loved in the world, and for plenty of very good reasons. At its heart, it combines sublime flavours with a simpler approach to preparation than you might traditionally see in French cuisine, and a laser-like focus on freshness, regionality and practicality. Italians know that the right ingredients are everything, and are just as serious about their food as their neighbours to the north and in fact cooking and food were considered so fundamental to life that the first European cookery book, by Apicius, was created in Rome in the 10th century, and the first printed cookery book, by Platina, came 500 years later. But while Italian food may be generally regarded as more “approachable” — less complicated, less fancy, less expensive — than French cuisine, that is often because the full complexities of Italian cooking have not travelled as far and wide. Italian food embraces a vast world beyond the pizza and pasta with which we are all so familiar, and it is a world full of rich, layered and delicious flavours. And that makes an awful lot of sense when you look at Italian history. If you ask an Italian about Italian cooking, he’ll ask you where from. And you’ll say, “well, Italy!”, and then he’ll say, “Yes, but where from?!” The nation state that we recognise as the trademark “boot” today only came into being in the second half of the 19th century following unification of an array of city states and republics, each of which had its distinct dialects, traditions and, of course, cuisines. So when you talk about “Italian food”, you’re really talking about food that could be Bolognese, Venetian, Roman, Milanese, Tuscan, Piedmontese, Sicilian, Neapolitan, and so on… On top of that, there is a long history of conquests, both outward, the Roman Empire springs to mind, and inward with invasions from the Greeks, Moors (called Saracens in Italy), Vikings, and more. Each of these left their own traces which we can still see today. For example the fabrication of the salty, sheep’s cheese Pecorino can be traced back to Greek influence. You’ll also find further influences from neighbours such as France, Austria and the Balkan countries in dishes such as spätzle Tirolesi, a Germanic spinach pasta with smoked speck ham and a cream sauce. Then there is Italy’s extraordinary geography: a long peninsula with the second-longest coastline in Europe, flanked by the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west, the Mediterranean to the south and the Adriatic to the east, and topped by the Alps in north which settle down to Italy’s only major plain. This is Italy’s dairy region, where hearty cooking tends to centre on meat, butter is widely used, and the staples are rice for risotto and cornmeal for polenta. Running down from that plain, the Apennine mountains stretch the entire length of the country, like a gigantic spine, dividing one coast from the other and riven with valleys whose peoples were isolated from one another, as were their cultures, customs and cuisines. This mountain range is also responsible for an astonishing variety of climate areas for such a small country, and also played a role in the variety of Italian foods. At the bottom is the sun drenched south, where olive oil, dried pastas, bright, fresh ingredients and plenty of seafood rule the days, and nights. There’s a reason why some of the seminal contemporary books on Italian cuisine, The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan and The Silver Spoon by Phaidon, run to 700 and 1500 pages apiece. At Siena, we hope to give you an insight into the startling breadth and diversity of traditional Italian cooking, done the Italian way. Looking forward to wishing you “Buon Appetito!”

Paul Dubrule School’s Post-Pandemic Pedal Back to Vitality

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A student at Ecole Paul Dubrule

With twenty years of building futures under its belt, the hospitality training school at Paul Dubrule is keeping its eye on the road ahead, for its students, and for Cambodia… This December, Paul Dubrule School will celebrate its 20th anniversary, so we took the opportunity to have a look back at the history of this emblematic establishment for professional training in Cambodia’s tourism and hospitality sector which has helped almost 4,000 graduates from all walks of life find their path in life. We took a lunchtime tour with director François Schnoebelen along laughter-filled corridors and among well-equipped classrooms. As we wander, delicious aromas are already wafting out from the kitchens where tomorrow’s chefs are hard at work preparing to feed this year’s intake of almost 200 students. The school’s exceptionality was baked in from its very inception. A co-founder of Accor, the name behind a suite of hotel brands from budget to luxury including Sofitel and Raffles, Paul Dubrule first visited Cambodia in 1998 and quickly spotted an opportunity in the Kingdom’s tourism potential and the lack of training in this sector. He decided to finance a hotel school aiming at the highest standards of teaching and, on the heels of an eight-month 15,000km cycle-ride from Fontainebleau to Siem Reap, he officially opened that school on October 24, 2002. Sixty-seven students graduated that first year, and immediately found jobs in the sector. Since then, the school has evolved and grown in step with Cambodia’s fast-changing context. The premises have expanded, as have the number of students and teachers, as well as the courses offered. “At the beginning, we were starting from scratch,” says François. “Basic skills were not there, and teaching them was a priority. Today, as levels have risen more generally, the aim is to offer solid professional training in the hospitality sector, which still needs more attention in the country. This training is intended to be as comprehensive as possible, addressing all aspects of the many professions that touch this vast field.” Most recently, thanks to the pandemic, the school was forced to adapt its teaching approach and set up online classes so that students would not fall behind. “Everyone was involved in setting up these distance learning courses, both students and teachers. More generally, the involvement of everyone at the school, whether staff or students, is paramount in the spirit of the institution,” says François. “A very large part in decision-making is given to the students, both in the courses and in daily life. To give a few examples: clubs have been created to promote sports and cultural activities. The same is true for environmental issues, such as growing our vegetable garden or making an inventory of the plants and trees on our property. Everyone showed great enthusiasm and we counted 70 plant species, all duly listed, described and mapped with great care. It was also the students who thought about different ways to save energy and then put them into practice.” Ecology, moreover, will be a prominent topic in the coming years, as the school aims to achieve Eco-Campus status. “When we applied for the certification, we realised that it had not yet been created for vocational schools. This turned into a remarkable opportunity to become a pilot school and set the future global standard. We are all very proud of this, even though it will take many months, if not years, of effort.” As a first step towards achieving the Eco-Campus label, an organic garden was created in partnership with Agrisud. François took up his position on a five-year contract in September last year, adding another chapter to a career that reads like a novel. Born into an Alsatian Catholic family, he originally intended to become a priest and spent two years at a seminary in Bavaria. However, he came to question his vocation and finally left to study philosophy in Paris. “I had no help from my parents,” he says, “I had to manage on my own. I was 19 years old, just out of the seminary, with little experience of life, and suddenly I found myself in the heart of the capital. It was quite confusing, but also exciting. I enrolled at the Sorbonne and the Institut Catholique d’Assas, which gave me radically different perspectives. Oddly enough, the most progressive professors were at the Catholic Institute, and the most conservative at the Sorbonne!” At the time, he lived in the then quite degraded but now fashionable Marais district in Paris. It was an eye-opening time for him, but also where he started out in hospitality in order to finance his studies. The experiences gave him a thirst for the business, and also for travel. With his studies completed, he opted to move into human resources for the interactions, connections and potential for knowledge that it offered. “When you’re curious, you get what you want”, he says. His work has since taken him to the four corners of the planet. In the course of those journeys, he met a Cambodian woman who became his wife and encouraged him to learn Khmer. From there, the idea of moving to Cambodia became an obvious next step. “I’m 50 years old and I’ve been involved in the non-profit sector for a long time, but this is the first time I’ve been a salaried employee and worked full time in this sector. It fills me with an immense satisfaction, which I feel every day when I go to the office. It’s a job that allows me to work in several fields, education, management, computer science, relational skills, human resources. All of this in the service of an NGO that is, and I sincerely believe it to be, the best hotel school in the kingdom.” After a slight drop in attendance due to the pandemic, the school is back on track, welcoming 185 students this year. The students receive the public in real conditions, thus refining their reception skills. All of them find a job after their studies. … Read more

Hitting the High Notes: Alsace’s Hugel Gentil

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Thanks to their bright, clean flavours Alsatian wines have long been a safe pick for anyone looking to pair a good white wine with Southeast Asian foods. In the Hugel Gentil available at Khéma you’ll find a wine that serves as a perfect introduction to Alsatian wines, thanks to its production method which brings together the “suave, spicy flavour of Gewürztraminer, the structure of Pinot Gris, the finesse of Riesling, the grapiness of Muscat and the refreshing character of Pinot Blanc and Sylvaner”. What does all this mean? The name Gentil dates back to the 1920s and is reserved for a method of producing blended AOC (“Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée) Alsace wines that fulfil the established standards. The blend must consist of at least 50% Riesling, Muscat, Pinot Gris and/or Gewürztraminer, and the rest can be either Sylvaner, Chasselas or Pinot Blanc. Each variety used in the blend must individually qualify as an AOC Alsace wine, ensuring that the blend retains its integrity, which may be why it has been coming back into fashion lately. Alsatian wines tend to be dry to off-dry, and this one is no exception. Described by one industry reviewer, who awarded Gentil Hegel nine out of ten stars, this is “a supple, bright and juicy white wine”, with a medium body, fresh fruit and florals aromas, and a long, dry, mineral finish on that palate, making it a perfect match for seafood, chicken and pork dishes, sushi and vegetarian dishes. Another industry reviewer says “this is a joyful dry white that’s brimming with fruit aromas, from pears to lychee to flowers”. As a white then, this wine seems to almost have it all in fact. Gentle enough to drink on its own, or as an aperitif, but robust enough to enjoy through the entire course of a meal. According to Kaoru Hugel, the Japanese wife of the last Etienne Hugel, this wine “goes very well with any food, especially Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai, you don’t really have to think about it”. It also works perfectly to cut through the richer flavours of French food, especially pork, chicken, and very especially seafood. You’ll find Hugel Gentil available for dining in at Khéma, or why not pick up a bottle to enjoy at home?

Happy Birthday to You! And other Lucky Charms…

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Offerings of food, drinks and prayers are made to deceased relatives in pagodas

We don’t often think of food’s symbolic powers, but they’re still there all the time and every day. Whether it’s the extra portion of care you put into preparing a dish for someone you love, or the warm comfort of a simple meal that takes you back to your childhood, there is often a silent meaning in every bite we eat. Taken a step further, food can be linked not just to our innermost feelings and experiences, but also to a more communal, external sense of history and culture. This doesn’t just mean the shared recipes of a given place and time, but also the funny little things we do that turn food into a bridge between us and another invisible world: the ways we use food for luck or grace. And even the most secular souls among us are not immune to it. In the Western world, the most overt example of this is the Eucharist—whose origins can be traced back to the Jewish tradition of breaking and blessing bread—where Catholics partake of wine and bread in order to to remember Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and to ask forgiveness for their sins. According to the principles of transubstantiation, followers are literally consuming the body and blood of Christ when they eat the bread and drink the wine which, frankly, sounds a little barbaric. But it’s hard to imagine a more profound and intimate way of connecting with your god than by literally taking him into your own body. Here in Cambodia, the festival of Pchum Ben also sets out to transcend the barrier between the living and the dead with rice giving and rice balls intended to satiate the ancestors’ torturous hunger, and also to symbolise the good deeds done to help release them from their torments. This giving of food offers a kind of redemption to the living in return, so that as they offer the rice balls they can feel a certain personal relief from having taken positive and tangible steps towards allaying the suffering of their ancestors. This ritual would not be nearly as powerful or important if something other than food were at its heart, because as food that they could otherwise have consumed themselves, it comes from the very stomachs and bodies of the celebrants. But there are plenty of other, smaller ways we use food to bring luck or grace to ourselves and others that many of us do every day without even realising it. For example, unless you’re visiting the most irrepressible anarchist, you’ll never find a baguette turned upside down in a French person’s house thanks to an ancient belief that an upturned baguette is how the devil gets in. The Irish used to put a cross on their loaves before baking their bread to prevent the same devil from getting in and ruining them (he’s a tricky fellow, and may need to watch his carbs). And some today would still hang a loaf of bread in the house on Good Friday in order to keep away evil spirits. These traditions may remain, in little pockets and tiny threads, even if their meaning is lost, not in order to achieve the original desires of that tradition but in order to cement a sense of occasion and community which are arguably just as vital and life-preserving as keeping the devil out of your house. And sometimes, it’s just a question of a habit you didn’t even know you had. It’s bad luck to spill salt in the West where it’s considered that the best remedy for that is not to clean it up but to take a pinch and throw it over your left shoulder so that you can blind the devil as he swoops in (and, incidentally, create another mess to clean up). Have you ever been to a wedding where the bride and groom cut the first slice of the cake and handed out the slices? This goes back to a Victorian tradition that was supposed to herald fertility. And speaking of cakes, this is how we know that even the most diehard secular, scientific, materialist will have taken part in a ritual that was originally intended to ward off bad spirits, and joyfully too. The tradition of lighting and blowing out candles on a birthday cake can be traced back to the ancient Greeks who used to make moon-shaped cakes to celebrate the birth of the moon goddess Artemis. Burning candles on the cakes was believed to chase away the evil spirits who could be attracted by their revelries. Today even the most grey-minded of people would not refuse to share in this tradition, because as with so many customs around food, it is not the tradition, or the beliefs that birthed it, but the communality that counts. Cakes can carry portents of the future too. In Ireland, the Halloween barm brack (a fruit cake) will often carry tokens that foretell whether you’ll marry over the next year—a ring: yes, a pea: no—have money, or worst of all, an unhappy marriage symbolised by a matchstick, with which to beat your wife. The French Gallette des Rois, enjoyed around Chandeleur 40 days after Christmas, also confers the potential for future bliss, though sadly only for the one day on which you find the bean buried inside your slice of puff pastry and frangipani and are automatically crowned King. During Chandeleur too, hopeful brides from Brittany in northwest France can give themselves an extra edge in the marital stakes by throwing a crêpe on top of her wardrobe. We haven’t researched the origins of this particular custom yet, but imagine it may have something to do with someone getting their flip horribly wrong and having to make up an excuse for it on the spot. At this time, crêpes are also handy for bringing in money over the coming year if you can successfully flip one while holding a gold coin in your hand. In Cambodia, food of course plays a … Read more

Right on Top: Phka Rumdoul Voted Best Rice in the World. Again

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Phka Rumdoul Rice - Image by Khmer Times

Cambodia’a jasmine rice, Phka Rumdoul, has once again been crowned the world’s best rice by the World Rice Conference held by The Rice Trade (TRT) in Phuket, Thailand. This is the fifth time Cambodian rice has received this award since it started participating in the Conference, with prior wins in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2018. Cambodian premium jasmine rice is grown in the wet season and is highly prized for its extra-long grain, soft texture and a distinctive flavour that exudes a strong, natural perfume. Cambodia’s Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, H.E. Dith Tina, expressed his congratulations on the win, which he said “is a source of pride for the nation.” The World Rice Conference is held annually for the global rice community and its many related industries, and plays a helpful role in promoting a nation’s products on international markets. Cambodia first started formally exporting milled rice in 2008, with less than 30,000 tonnes. Since then, the industry has grown tremendously with almost 800,000 tonnes shipped in 2020. Exports dropped during the pandemic, although at 450,000 tonnes for the first nine months of this year, figures are already 10% ahead of 2021. There are as many ways of preparing rice as grains in a bowl. But here is one of our favourites for you to enjoy a simple, sweet (and calorific) dessert at home. Rice with Palm Sugar and Coconut Milk Ingredients (for four people): 50g Glutinous rice ½tsp Salt 700ml Fresh coconut milk 200g Palm sugar 3tbs liquid palm sugar 100ml Coconut cream Method: Soak the rice in water for twenty minutes, then drain and add the rice to a saucepan, along with the salt and half the coconut milk. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes, stirring occasionally, until the rice softens. Add the palm sugar and coconut milk to the rice, stir and then simmer for five minutes until the rice becomes translucent. Add the liquid palm sugar and cook for another two minutes. Divide the rice among four bowls, then drizzle with a tablespoon of coconut cream, serve hot and savour…

A Slice of Life: The French Baguette Recognised as a World Heritage

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Bakery in Nice, France, November 28, 2022. REUTERS

Last month, the emblematic French Baguette was added to the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage by Uneseco, bringing France’s recorded number of cultural elements up to 25, including the Gastronomic Meal of the French, perfume making in Grasse, the Carnival of Granville and Summer Solstice Fire Festivals in the Pyrenees. Intangible cultural heritage is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge or skill considered by Unesco to be part of a place’s cultural heritage. It is those things we cannot see or touch but which represent a culture’s essence, such as its folklore, customs, beliefs, traditions, knowledge and languages. Thus, the latest listing more specifically distinguishes the Artisanal Know-how and Culture of Baguette Bread, rather than baguettes themselves. The entry notes that the baguette is the most popular kind of bread enjoyed and consumed in France throughout the year. Made with only four ingredients (flour, water, salt, leaven and/or yeast), its crisp crust and chewy texture “result in a specific sensory experience” and they are consumed all over the country in a variety of contexts. But even though baguettes all over are made with those same four ingredients, it is the vital fifth ingredient, the baker’s savoir-faire, that will distinguish one boulangerie’s baguette and another’s. Ironically, the baguette is a relatively recent addition to France’s culinary repertoire. Although long, thin loaves have been made since the time of King Louis XIV, the form we all know and love today was only properly recognised in 1920. In the 18th century, these humble loaves, with their high crust to crumb (the doughy white inside) ratio, were actually criticised as pandering too much to Parisians and their love of crust. But time and the crust eventually won out, and the baguette finally made it to France’s provinces during the early 20th century, thereby guaranteeing its places in French stomachs and hearts.

Thalias Group To Win Energy Consumption Related Award

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The Ministry of Environment is leading the way on showing companies how to save big, and help save the planet too… On October 28, Thalias was delighted and honoured to step up to the podium to receive two awards at the Cambodian Energy Efficiency Competition organised by the Ministry of Environment, the Institute of Technology of Cambodia and Sevea Consulting with the support of the Cambodia Climate Change Alliance and Schneider Electric. This competition was created in order to encourage businesses and institutions to cut back on their energy usage, and to recognise the efforts of those that successfully do so. The Competition takes place over a year in which participants monitor their monthly energy usage, and declare their monthly energy bills on the competition’s web platform. It’s the kind of action that helps to focus minds on the ways that energy is used, and often wasted, in the course of everyday activities. This means that even for those participants that did not take away a medal, they’ve still won something incredibly valuable. The Competition began last year with 28 participating buildings, and it is hoped that this will grow over time as its reputation grows. It is in fact modelled on a successful French initiative, the CUBE Competition, created by the French Institute for Building Performance. So far, that competition has seen 670 participating buildings which have seen an average annual saving on usage, and therefore their bills, of 12%. One was able to make savings of 57.4%! Overall, the competition has already contributed to a saving of 7,658 tons of CO2. The Competition is also vital for raising awareness, not just in the media and public forums, but among the thousands of employees, globally hundreds of thousands, whose small daily modifications can have a tremendous impact. Thalias’ teams worked and continue to work hard to reduce our own output across all our properties, and we are grateful their efforts have been recognised. We look forward to the competition “hotting up” as more businesses and institutions take part in the years to come. The Cambodia Energy Efficiency Competition was created under the Ministry of Environment in partnership with EuroCham, EnergyLab, the Liger Leadership Academy and the IFPEB, and with the financial support of Schneider Electric and the National Council for Sustainable Development under the Cambodia Climate Change Alliance Innovation Grant Facility, and additional support from the European Union, the United Nation Development Program and Sweden.

Dining And Diplomacy – Cambodia On a Plate

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How do states navigate tricky knots in negotiations, affirm their strongest relations and make their boldest, but unspoken, declarations? Through food of course… To many, food is simply something they put into their mouths in order to fuel the things they’re doing while they’re not eating. To others, the power of food to bring people together and bind, or break, relations is its very essence, which is why food has for so long played such an important role in international relations. Former British prime minister, Lord Palmerston, noted that “dining is the soul of diplomacy”, and this is as true today as it was in the 1860s thanks to food’s power to communicate as eloquently as any wordsmith can. Coming together around a table and, often, rather elaborate meal has the power to deepen alliances and broaden understanding. It unites and unifies, diffuses political tensions and affirms bonds. Studies have shown that it not only enhances peoples’ receptiveness to whatever is being discussed, it also triggers a desire to “repay” the provider. Food brings people together, and the dining table provides a less fraught setting within which to develop cordial and productive relationships, especially after a day of tiring negotiations in a different arena. But food on this scale also has the power to tell a tale. When the Irish government welcomed Queen Elizabeth on a state visit in 2011, food was an especially fraught subject given the series of famines that defined British colonial rule, culminating in the Great Famine of 1845-49 that killed around one million people. But the Irish government turned that bitter pill around, and used food to make a statement about Ireland’s diplomatic, cultural and culinary identity. It was a statement that was both welcoming and welcomed because it came from a place of genuine pride that was expressed through the selection of local ingredients and local foodways. Even the wines, Château Lynch-Bages and Château de Fieuzal, were chosen for their historical Irish connections. Until she died recently, the Queen still talked about this occasion as one of the greatest of her reign. It was a moment that cemented and transformed relations between the two countries. Ireland was no longer afraid to stand up and be counted, and said as much through every bite and sip of that meal. That is the power of food. On another grand occasion in 1889, the Emperor of Japan, Meiji the Great, hosted a dinner for 800 people to celebrate the completion of a new royal palace, and to showcase Japan’s modernisation and sophistication. In that case, there was no question but that the menu and service had to be French and it took the court two years to prepare for the spectacular occasion. During that time courtiers had to be trained in how to dress and behave at a French dinner, including the peculiar art of making small talk, and also in how to resist being unnerved by the constant clatter of silverware on porcelain. Fortunately, great occasions are a little less fraught these days, and don’t take quite so long to prepare for. But they still take time. When Thalias was called on to prepare a dinner for 500 people during the ASEAN Summit in August this year, we knew how important it was that the evening show off the best of Cambodia. The menu itself was conceived by Chef Luu Meng who took delegates on a proud culinary tour of the nation with a distinctly Cambodian menu that included Kampot Crab, Takeo River Langoustine, Battambang Beef Saraman. But aside from all the menu planning, wine pairing, organising, ordering, scheduling and everything else that goes into putting together a great dinner, it took our kitchen teams three full days of slicing, chopping, dicing, mixing, marinading and 193 other things just to prepare the meal. It’s a huge task that takes a huge team and an awful lot of careful coordination. Fortunately, this is where Topaz Executive Chef Sopheak Pov is in his element. Chef Sopheak refined his kitchen management skills in Michelin-starred kitchens in France where the brigade system rules. That system helps him to keep his eye on 200 different details and moving parts all at once, even when working in a domain that is not strictly his own. Chef Sopheak is less experienced in Cambodian cuisine than he is in French. It’s a great example of how systems can define outcomes, regardless of the arena. Speaking a few years ago while Ambassador of Denmark, Joe Biden’s current Chief of Protocol, Rufus Gifford once said, “When you tell a story with food—whatever that story may be—it makes diplomacy a little bit easier. I have found that especially, at this moment in time, whether it’s coming out of covid, or the weight of the geopolitical situation around the world, we need more joy in our lives. We need more reasons to gather around a table and laugh and smile, and connect as human beings. That starts and ends with food.” We’re very much inclined to agree.