Welcome to The Morks Blog!
This is the medium that we want to use to express our views, thoughts, opinions, ideas and just the crazy things that run through our heads in general. As a lot of you probably don't know, the restaurant is owned by Adul and Sunida Ratanakosol, along side their sons, Mork and Benn (me). We've been in hospitality for a while now; for my brother and I, our entire lives.Â
My dad opened Sukothai Restaurant (Yarralumla Shops) in 1990, and sold it in 2008. When he first opened it, traditional Thai cuisine was the ducks nuts; there were only a handful of Thai restaurants open in Canberra. The foodies were raving about the exciting combination of flavours and the explosive spices more than organic Arabian coffee beans from the Congo had ever heard. Naturally, Thai people who knew how to cook got excited. Thai chefs started quitting, opening their own Thai restaurant with highly original and unpredictable names. What about we take the name of the country... and put a condiment at the end of it?! Write that down! If they're really fancy, they'll just use the condiment. The trend of chefs jumping ship is common. Over 18 years of running Sukothai, my dad saw 8 of his chefs become restaurant owners. We all get along, catch up and have fun. He himself was one of these chefs. But the point is, Thai restaurants were popping up like McDonald's. Thai Cuisine, as wonderful as it is, was losing its magic.Â
My dad realised this. He realised this in 2000. I'm sure a lot of Thai chefs did. But who cares? We're making money; we've got a regular clientele; my wife and kids are happy; and damn, I make the best Mussamun Beef in all of Canberra and surrounds, bitch! So it went on. We kept doing what we do, not really being that special. To ourselves, of course we made the best Thai food in Canberra. Of course the other Thai Restaurants were selling out to the masses, while we were keeping it real. Of course every other Thai restaurant was thinking exactly the same thing, that's business*. When we sold Sukothai in 2008, my dad had plans to retire. That's it, I've got my Johnnie Walker, my Foxtel and my kitchen. Then, he got bored.Â
We're going back in time into the future. We want to bring back the excitement, the curiosity and the wonder that Thai food used to bring you and your parents. It's no longer about creating a menu with 80 items, all available with your choice of chicken, beef, pork, lamb, prawn or tofu. Fuck that! Why can't a Thai meal be as special as a French meal? Why reserve Thai for those cheap and cheerful Wednesday nights, when you don't feel like Chinese or Malaysian or Chinese-Malaysian? These questions drove us to create Morks - the first Contemporary Thai restaurant in Canberra. If you haven't, come try the new paradigm in Thai cuisine. Find out what it was like 20 years ago, when people were just discovering this fantastic cuisine. Find out what it's like when a Thai chef pours passion into a meal, rather than scooping sauce out of a bucket and adding whatever meat the slip says. Rarely do my brother and I agree on something, but we both know we're just getting started. This is the beginning, and this is your chance to be apart of the beginning.Â
Before I wrap it up, let me quickly talk about how this blog will work. Mork and I will not be the only writers. We're also going to get our chefs, kitchen hands, waiters and waitresses to join in. The Morks Blog is your backstage pass to what goes on behind the scenes: the good, the bad, the ugly. Sometimes, we might write things that could offend. They could come in the form of swear words or views and opinions. Everyone is different, if you're offended, we apologise. But this blog is not for you. It is for enthusiastic foodies. Welcome aboard!Â
*For the record, Sukothai Restaurant between the years of 1990 - 2008 was the best, most fantastically, magically delicious place anyone ever could have gone for a Thai meal outside Bangkok.Â