Tuesday, April 25, 2006

While in Boston, don't forget to visit the Elephant Walk restaurant, the desserts top it all!

(4/14/06 Boston, MA) - Elephant Walk owner Longteine De Moneiros shows off her finished dish in her Boston resturant. (Photo by Jon Hill)

Renowned Cambodian chef Longteine de Monteiro is on a mission to teach culture through food

By KATHLEEN DEELY , Sun Staff
Video by Jendhamuni Sos, Sun staff

BOSTON -- The dining room has all the trappings of an upscale urban bistro. The walls are saffron, the lights sleek and the floors rustic. Except for the elephants placed here, there and everywhere, it could pass for the latest trendy restaurant to pop up outside Kenmore Square. To watch video click here.

But pass through the kitchen doors of the Elephant Walk and the earthy, pungent smell of the Orient -- lemongrass and turmeric -- conjure up images of a faraway, exotic land. Hardly a new flavor combination, these hallmarks of Cambodian cuisine have played a vibrant role in South East Asian recipes for decades.

Traditional Cambodian dishes, the kind Longteine de Monteiro grew up with in Phnom Penh 60 years ago, have won her culinary accolades since she opened her Cambodian/French fusion restaurant in Somerville in 1991. She may have caught the attention of James Beard, but young Cambodian-Americans seem not to care about braised duck in coconut milk.

"They come in here and think it must be Thai food, because the restaurant looks classy. This is not Thai food," said Longteine, getting lost in a cloud of steam as she tosses chicken into a hot skillet of soybean oil.

"It's better than Thai, more refined."

The disconnect that Cambodians, who fled their homeland during the Khmer Rouge invasion in the '70s, have with their traditional food spurs Longteine to get up each morning and cook with forgotten produce like kaffir lime. It also propels her to invite strangers into her home in Jamaica Plain, where she teaches cooking classes, and to give demonstrations whenever possible.

On Sunday, she will be in Lowell demonstrating the art of Khmer cooking for Cambodian Expressions. It's a chance to learn how to use those hard-to-pronounce vegetables at Battambang Market and for Cambodians to keep their heritage alive.

"They need to know these recipes. They are getting lost," said Longteine, who learned to cook for her father when she was 16.

The recipes the 69-year-old carried with her while traveling with her ambassador husband when they fled the country have made her famous in Boston's gustatory circles.

"Many of those who had these recipes were killed. I am lucky to have them," said Longteine, whose eyes can go from deadly serious to playful and soft through the course of a sentence.

What's more important than winning accolades for her restaurant -- she's received big marks from Esquire Magazine and Zagat -- is keeping this tradition alive.

"It's more important to share. I would love to see the younger generation at the cooking demonstration, but they don't care. It's their mentality."

They would rather go to clubs and dance, said Longteine. Cambodia does not have a celebrity chef culture to make cooking cool. Being a chef over there is a strictly a blue-collar pursuit that attracts little interest. They also don't understand what makes Cambodian food Cambodian. It is not their fault, says Longteine. Much has been lost in translation.

"Things are getting lost in religion, too. The value is gone; they just don't get it," she said.

This savory cross between Indian and Chinese food is easy to mistake.

What separates Cambodian cooking from Thai is spice. Cambodian dishes are served mild, but chili sauce is always within arm's length. Signature Cambodian flavors are sweet, bitter, salty, spicy and sour. Usually, they all come into play in one meal.

Longteine will prepare beef with eggplant in coconut milk, lemon grass chicken and pineapple salad in Lowell. She will talk about her passion for cooking and teach a few skilled moves in the name of preserving this most sacred Khmer art.

"Cooking is an art. You have to have the talent of art to make it beautiful. You create dishes," she said.

Longteine is always playing with flavor, seafood and vegetables because, she says, "Cambodian dishes are limited."

So what's the secret to becoming a great chef?

It has nothing to do with reading recipes.

"To be able to cook good food you have to have a good palate. If you don't have that you can cook a lot, but it will not be very good."

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