PHNOM PENH: Young Cambodian chefs are breathing new life into Khmer culinary traditions, reviving royal recipes dating back more than half a century, rediscovering little-used indigenous ingredients and transforming familiar street food into contemporary dishes, as part of efforts to preserve the Kingdom’s culinary heritage for future generations.
The chefs brought their interpretations of Cambodian cuisine together at the Masters of Khmer Flavours event at Park Hyatt Siem Reap on October 8, presenting a four-course culinary journey inspired by royal kitchens, the Mekong and Tonle Sap waterways, everyday Cambodian food and locally grown tropical produce.
The event, part of a culinary event running from October 8 to 10, brought together Rotanak “Chef Nak” Ros, Chanrith Van, Kimsan Pol and Kimsan Soan, each offering a different perspective on how traditional Khmer flavours can be preserved while adapting to modern culinary techniques.
For Nak, whose work focuses on researching and documenting Cambodian recipes, preserving culinary heritage involves more than recreating dishes from old cookbooks.
It requires recovering forgotten ingredients, reconstructing cooking methods and consulting people who still hold memories of Cambodia’s royal food traditions.
Palettes from the palace
Nak said she had chosen to prepare Natang Sach Kdam, a crab-based dish associated with Cambodia’s royal cuisine, which she said was served in the Royal Palace between the 1950s and 1970s.
The dish, she explained, belonged to a category of royal food known as preah saoy, prepared for members of the royal family and, on special occasions, visiting foreign dignitaries.
“During that period, the Royal Palace was also a centre for cultural and diplomatic exchanges, welcoming guests from other countries. This dish was among those prepared to receive them,” she explained.
However, reconstructing such dishes has presented considerable challenges, particularly because many traditional recipes and ingredients became less familiar to younger generations following decades of conflict and social upheaval.
Nak said her research began with surviving historical documents, followed by efforts to identify and recover ingredients that had once been used in Cambodian cooking but were no longer commonly recognised.
Among them were Cambodian cardamom, including its seeds, leaves and other parts of the plant, as well as black ginger and other traditional ingredients.
“Before I started researching Cambodian cuisine, I did not even know how cardamom seeds, leaves or other parts of the plant were used in cooking,” Nak noted.
“When we began studying these ingredients, we had to search for the plants, grow them again and learn how to use them,” she added.
Nak said Cambodia’s culinary traditions had undergone significant changes following the Khmer Rouge period, when survival and access to basic food took priority over elaborate cooking.
She noted that the deaths of older generations and the limited availability of historical records had made it increasingly difficult to reconstruct certain dishes accurately.
“Many of the older people who were familiar with these traditions have passed away, and we do not have many documents left. That is why we have to study the surviving records, rediscover the ingredients and bring them back into use,” she said.
Reconstructing a recipe also requires repeated testing because researchers often have no direct experience of how the original dish tasted.
Nak explained that she had consulted members of the royal family who were familiar with palace life and culinary practices to better understand the balance of flavours and preparation methods.
Some were also invited to taste reconstructed dishes and provide feedback.
“Their feedback is very important to us. It gives us greater confidence in understanding the ingredients and the flavours we are trying to recreate,” she said.
From the Kingdom’s waters
While Nak’s work looks to Cambodia’s royal culinary past, chef Chanrith Van draws inspiration from the country’s waterways, particularly the Mekong and Tonle Sap, where freshwater fish and seasonal produce have long shaped local food traditions.
For the event, he prepared a taro-based soup using Cambodian freshwater fish, prahok and locally available ingredients, drawing on a traditional countryside dish commonly associated with the rainy season.
He explained that the soup is traditionally prepared with snails, but he chose to use snakehead fish, adapting the preparation to suit the dining experience while retaining its familiar flavours.
Chanrith said the dish was closely connected to his childhood and family background, having grown up in a household involved in selling fish.
“I grew up in a family that sold fish. We made our own prahok at home with my parents, so these ingredients and flavours have always been part of my life,” he told The Post.
He said Cambodia’s freshwater resources provide a wide variety of fish that can be incorporated into traditional and contemporary dishes, reducing the need to rely exclusively on imported ingredients.
The chef also highlighted the importance of fermented ingredients, particularly prahok, in developing the distinctive flavours of Khmer cuisine.
According to Chanrith, the combination of locally sourced fish, seasonal vegetables, fresh herbs and fermented ingredients reflects the relationship between Cambodian food and the natural environment.
He said visitors should be encouraged to understand the cultural background of Khmer dishes rather than viewing them simply as unfamiliar foods.
“We want visitors to understand more than just the food, because cuisine is connected to our culture, our people and our civilisation,” he said.
He added that fresh ingredients, including lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and other locally grown herbs, were among the strengths of Cambodian cooking.
Drawing on his experience teaching cooking classes, he said some international visitors were particularly impressed by the availability and aromas of fresh Cambodian herbs that they had previously encountered only in dried form.
Hearty fare from the heartland
Meanwhile, chef Kimsan Pol approached culinary preservation from a different direction, taking inspiration from one of Cambodia’s familiar breakfast dishes — nom pang khor ko, or Cambodian beef stew served with bread.
Rather than reproducing the dish exactly as it is served at street stalls and local restaurants, she reinterpreted it using beef tongue, slow-cooking techniques and contemporary presentation.
Kimsan Pol said she selected the dish because of its rich flavour, accessibility and personal connection to her childhood food preferences.
“I have always loved eating nom pang khor ko because it has such a rich flavour, especially when combined with herbs such as rice paddy herb and coriander,” she said.
For her interpretation, she replaced conventional cuts of beef with beef tongue, which requires extended cooking to achieve a tender texture.
Drawing on culinary techniques she learned during her training in France, she used slow cooking at a controlled temperature before slicing and finishing the meat over charcoal to introduce a smoky aroma.
The sauce was prepared and served separately, while the bread was finished with butter and coriander.
Despite changing the cooking method and presentation, Pol insisted that preserving the original flavour remained her main priority.
“I still preserve the original flavour because taste is very important. I do not change the original flavour of our Khmer food, but I change the cooking techniques,” she told The Post.
She said familiar ingredients such as star anise, cinnamon, garlic and shallots remained essential to maintaining the identity of the dish.
Her intention was for Cambodian diners to recognise the taste of nom pang khor ko, even when the dish looked different from the version they might normally eat at a roadside restaurant.
“When guests taste it, they may feel that they have eaten something similar before. Once we explain the dish, they realise it is nom pang khor ko, just presented differently from street food,” she said.
The fruit of the fields
For chef Kimsan Soan, executive chef of Park Hyatt Siem Reap, the focus was on Cambodian desserts and the potential of locally grown agricultural products.
His dessert combined lotus seeds, tubers, sago and fresh Cambodian coconut with a mango sorbet, bringing together traditional ingredients and a modern frozen preparation.
Kimsan said Cambodia had a wide range of agricultural products that could be transformed into different dishes and desserts while retaining their familiar flavours.
He explained that the lotus seeds and other ingredients were locally available and that greater use of such produce in restaurants could help create opportunities for Cambodian farmers.
“We have many Cambodian products that can be prepared in different ways. By using ingredients such as lotus seeds, which are grown locally, we can also help support our farmers,” he said.
While the main components of the dessert followed Cambodian culinary traditions, the addition of mango sorbet introduced a contemporary element.
“Normally, everything we prepare is Cambodian in style. What we have added is the sorbet, which Cambodians did not have in the past. We use our own mangoes to create the sorbet and serve it with the traditional dessert,” he said.
He explained that sorbet differs from conventional ice cream because it is made without milk or cream, relying instead on fruit to produce its flavour and texture.
Beyond the chefs’ individual creations, the event also raised questions about how Cambodian cuisine can gain wider international recognition while maintaining its cultural identity and supporting local producers.
Balancing tradition with evolution
The four chefs’ interpretations illustrate different approaches to maintaining Cambodia’s culinary identity, from documenting recipes associated with the Royal Palace to adapting food commonly found in households, markets and rural communities.
Their work also highlights the importance of traditional ingredients and the knowledge passed down through families, particularly in a country where periods of conflict disrupted many aspects of cultural life.
For the chefs, however, the broader significance extends beyond presenting traditional dishes in a luxury dining setting.
Their experiences suggest that preserving Cambodian cuisine does not necessarily mean keeping every recipe unchanged. Instead, it involves understanding the origins, ingredients and flavours that define a dish before introducing new techniques.
As Nak’s efforts to reconstruct royal recipes demonstrate, recovering culinary knowledge can require extensive research, experimentation and consultation with those who remember the traditions.
At the same time, the reinterpretation of familiar dishes such as nom pang khor ko, countryside taro soup and traditional desserts shows how Cambodian food can continue to evolve without losing its connection to the people, places and memories from which it originated. - The Phnom Penh Post/ANN
