Book
SAOY: Royal Cambodian Home Cuisine
SAOY: Royal Cambodian Home Cuisine is a cookbook by Chef Nak (Rotanak Ros) on Cambodia's royal home cooking tradition.[1] It is based on recipes compiled and taught in the 1960s by Her Royal Highness Princess Norodom Rasmi Sobbhana.[1][2]
About the book
The book reinterprets dishes from the princess's collection The Culinary Art of Cambodia, a work of 400 entries that had been republished about two years earlier.[3] Princess Norodom Rasmi Sobbhana, a great-aunt of King Norodom Sihamoni, supervised the table at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh.[3][4] Nearly all of the recipes come from her, and the book centers on dishes made by members of her family and on the tastes of the royal family in the 1950s and 1960s.[5][4] A photograph in the book shows the princess in the Oval Office during a private audience with President John F. Kennedy.[5]
Counts of the recipes differ. Angkor Database gives around 120 dishes drawn from the princess's collection, Le Petit Journal more than sixty recipes, and Gavroche Thaïlande nearly seventy dishes described and photographed.[3][4][6]
The book combines recipes with culinary history, techniques and ingredients, and with the philosophy of balance in Khmer cooking.[1] Its chapters hold aromatic soups, curries, relishes, salads, preserves and celebratory recipes, cooked with Cambodian staples such as kroeung, fish sauce, palm sugar, kaffir lime, galangal, turmeric and fresh herbs.[1] Dishes made for the Norodom family include snacks such as crab and pork na taing, fresh rice noodles (Num Banh Chok), salads such as meang chrouk and a crab salad with pomelo and coconut cream, about fifteen soups and nearly ten desserts.[6] Ingredients are given with weighed quantities, and the book adds notes on local proteins, fruits and vegetables, edible stems, leaves and flowers, Cambodian spices and fermented products.[6] It also covers pacing, flavor building and substitutions.[1]
The royal cuisine in the book is rich and complex, seasoned with aromatic spices such as fennel seed, cardamom, cloves, coriander and star anise, and it shows Chinese, Thai, Indian and French influences.[4] The dishes are much less spicy than most Cambodian cooking. Princess Norodom Rasmi Sobbhana disliked spicy food, prahok and fermented shrimp paste (kapi), so few recipes use them, though a kapi phao is included.[6] Gavroche Thaïlande calls the book a bridge between past and present rather than an encyclopedia of royal cuisine, and notes that it gives only a partial picture of that cuisine's provincial, communal and foreign influences.[6]
The title
The title is the Khmer verb for eating used by royalty and high society, សោយ (saoy).[3] The Chuon Nath dictionary records earlier meanings of the word: to be happy, sad or fruitful, to enjoy, and to consume.[3] The same word appears in សោយរាជ្យ (saoy reach), "reigning as the King of Earth."[3] For her earlier recipe collection, Chef Nak had used the everyday verb for eating, ញ៉ាំ (nhoam).[3]
Making of the book
Chef Nak researched the recipes and brought them into the present while keeping their ingredients, techniques, stories and cultural origins.[1] Photography and original artwork by young Cambodian artists illustrate the book, with an image of each dish.[1][2] Angkor Database lists Rotanak Ros and La Mo as its authors, credits the photographs to La Mo and the illustrations to the artist Sot Serey.[3] La Mo's photographs use vintage tableware, gold or gold-plated cutlery and dark backgrounds.[3] Le Petit Journal credits the illustrations and photographs to Soben and Lamo.[4] The team also included Samnang Heng, editor and translator; Sovann Reaksmey Khiev, layout designer; and Min Ly (Lamo), photographer.[5] The forewords are by Her Royal Highness Princess Norodom Marie, His Royal Highness Prince Sisowath Tesso, His Excellency Hun Many and Ambassador Julio Jeldres.[3]
Publication
The book was launched on May 12, 2023, at the Rosewood Phnom Penh hotel.[7][4] An exhibition also titled SAOY ran at the Rosewood Phnom Penh from May 13 to June 6, 2023, showing original illustrations and art photographs from the book.[4] The book was self-published in Phnom Penh and printed in China, and it comes in a box decorated with gilding and drawings.[3][4] It was issued in two versions, one in English and one in Khmer.[6][4]
Listings differ on the year and length. Angkor Database gives 2022 and 210 pages for a hardback copy, Gavroche Thaïlande 2022 and 240 pages, and AbeBooks 2023 and 220 pages for a perfect-bound paperback.[3][6][8]
- Publisher: Chef Nak, 2023[8]
- Language: English; a Khmer version was also issued[6]
- ISBN: 9789924966319 (ISBN-10 9924966317)[8]
Recognition
On November 28, 2023, at the 29th Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the book won in the "Best of the Best," "Asian Books" and "Heads of State" categories.[7][6] It was named Best of the Best Cookbook in the World.[9][1] On January 16, 2024, Queen Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk received Chef Nak and her team in Phnom Penh and praised the cookbook as unique and wonderful.[5]
Access
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Chef Nak, SAOY cookbook page
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 SATU, Saoy: Royal Cambodian Home Cuisine
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 Angkor Database, Saoy, Royal Cambodian Home Cuisine
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Le Petit Journal Cambodge, SAOY: les saveurs oubliées de la cuisine royale cambodgienne (May 12, 2023)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Moomoo News, Queen Mother hosts Chef Nak in celebration of Cambodian culinary excellence (January 16, 2024)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 Gavroche Thaïlande, Saoy, Royal Cambodian Home Cuisine (November 8, 2024)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Chef Nak, Wikipedia
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 AbeBooks, SAOY: Royal Cambodian Home Cuisine
- ↑ BBC Travel, The return of Cambodia's food lost during the Khmer Rouge regime (March 21, 2024)