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Benjarong X Potong

Jeeves De Veyra

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1758619698351CHEF PAM and CHEF JA.jpg" style="width:8950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Potong&#x27;s Pichaya &#x27;Pam&#x27; Soontornyanakij and Benjarong&#x27;s Watcharaphon &#x27;Ja&#x27; Yongbanthom. Jeeves de Veyra</div>For two nights only, Bangkok-based one Michelin starred restaurant Potong, answered Dusit Thani Manila’s Benjarong’s culinary call to produce a rare eight-course collaboration between Potong founder, Chef Pichaya “Pam” Soontornyanakij, and Benjarong chef de cuisine Watcharaphon “Ja” Yongbanthom.Chef Pam is known for her progressive fusion of Chinese and Thai cuisine that’s best tasted at her restaurant Potong. For this, she was named 2025’s World’s Best Female Chef after being awarded Asia’s Best Female Chef last year by the The World’s 50 Best RestaurantsChef Ja, meanwhile, is the celebrated chef who put Dusit Thani Manila’s Benjarong on the foodie map with her cooking cited on CNN&#x27;s Hot New Global Restaurants list back in 2018. She is no stranger to hosting celebrity chefs having collaborated with Chef Thaninthorn “Noom” Juntharawan of one Michelin-starred restaurant Chim by Siam Wisdom at Benjarong in 2019 and 2024.Dusit Thani Manila’s general manager Shubham Chandra said this was in the works since last year as Potong was already a dining destination for Chef Pam’s 15- and 20-course tasting menus. The seats were sold out in 24 hours after they announced the collaboration making this one of the most coveted dinner seats this year.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1758619881573ENGRAVED WOOD MENU.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>The wood-engraved menu. Jeeves de VeyraFor this tag-team dinner paired with French, Argentinian, and Australian wines, the two chefs contributed their own dishes to the menu. Chef Ja brought elements from her Benjarong experience dinners into this collaboration. For Chef Pam and her team, they didn’t bring any of the dishes from Potong citing that this was a kitchen and may not have the flexibility to prepare as they would back in Bangkok. What she did instead was to have original recipes with ingredients personally brought in from Thailand.</div>For those who’ve tried Chef Ja’s Benjarong Experience set menus, the hand-drawn chalk diagram and that donut-like plate is a throwback. A bite of this tangy piece of spicy prawn with ginger and shallots with a side of cashew and ginger slivers wrapped in a wild betel leaf was a great preview of what was to come.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175862004289401 - APPETIZER MIENG KRAM.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Mieng Kram. Jeeves de VeyraChef Pam answered with a cold chūtoro course. The finely sliced medium fatty tuna in rich coconut sauce and basil oil served cold in a crystal jar with a hit of spice from chili hiding underneath.<img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175862008325302 - APPETIZER chutoro.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Chūtoro. Jeeves de VeyraThe Hokkaido Scallop in spicy sate from Chef Pam was my favorite bite of the entire meal. Her sate was SPICY and had me sweating after I had a nibble of it on its own after finishing the buttery slices of scallop. This came with a piece of brioche which I gladly broke apart to sop off and savor that sauce to its very last drop.</div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175862025969303 - APPETIZER HOKKAIDO SCALLOP.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Hokkaido Scallop. Jeeves de VeyraSurprisingly, Chef Ja reined in the heat with her Khao Soi served inside a coconut. This was creamy and mild, rich with crab meat with briny notes from the caviar that topped the dish. I tried scraping off the coconut meat to mix in with the soup, but I may have inadvertently made the dish much milder by doing so. To get more heat from this, I think the better way would have been to enjoy the soup infused coconut meat after finishing off the khao soi.</div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175862034665404 - MAIN Khao soi.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Khao Soi. Jeeves de Veyra</div>I was expecting a lot of mouth-numbing mala from the Sichuan oil in the steak course. This was perfectly seared pink in the middle with just a light skin of dark sear. Still, it is A5 Wagyu so I could cut it with a spoon. This was surprisingly tame, smokier, than spicy with some hits from the Sichuan peppercorns on top of the steak. This came with steak rice. When uncovered, the escaping aromas were a delight on the nose.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1758620884236552407538_1486917919013193_5549406224108201038_n.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>A5 Wagyu tenderloin. Jeeves de VeyraThe first dessert was from Chef Ja. This was an ornate cookie lattice covered a shredded sweet potato nest with a lime sorbet egg encased in white chocolate. I should have let the lime sorbet melt a bit so that it’s easier to mix with the broken cookie, sweet and crunchy bits of nest, and the mint leaves below.</div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175862079721405 - dessert - sorbet egg in camote nest.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Sorbet egg in camote nest. Jeeves de VeyraI wish they served the dessert wine, the Angas Moscato as early as the first dessert. This wine had fruity cherry notes that would have complemented the two semi-sweet desserts.</div>Chef Pam’s dessert was a twist on mango sticky rice, but this one was mango crispy rice. There was a similarity to the first dessert where I had to break the elaborate pandan tuile that topped the slightly salty crispy rice cracker with a coconut and mango compote paste to have all the elements in one bite.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175862074651506 - dessert - coconut with pandan tuile 4.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Coconut with pandan tuile. Jeeves de VeyraThe meal ended with a bunch of Thai petit fours. The Kanom Luk Chup instantly caught the eye. These were mung bean paste shaped and colored like small fruits. The set was rounded out by corn with coconut, glutinous rice with coconut and sesame that resembled palitaw, and rice crackers with palm sugar.</div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175862070071407 - dessert - petit four 5.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Petit fours. Jeeves de VeyraIt’s not often that the World’s Best Female Chef graces a kitchen in Manila. While I expected strong spicy flavors, the dishes in this collaboration gave a taste of how Thai, particularly Chef Pam’s Chinese-Thai cuisine, can be balanced and subtle as well.</div>For those who missed this, Dusit Thani Manila is planning a Benjarong Experience dinner that will include the most well-received dishes from this collaboration. Chandra also hinted that Manila will be calling again for Bangkok to answer, perhaps with different chefs in the years to come.

For two nights only, Bangkok-based one Michelin-starred restaurant Potong joined forces with Dusit Thani Manila’s Benjarong for a rare eight-course culinary collaboration. The dinners sold out within 24 hours, cementing this collaboration as one of the year’s most coveted culinary events.

For two nights only, Bangkok-based one Michelin-starred restaurant Potong joined forces with Dusit Thani Manila’s Benjarong for a rare eight-course culinary collaboration. The dinners sold out within 24 hours, cementing this collaboration as one of the year’s most coveted culinary events.

Bangkok meets Manila: Michelin-starred Potong teams up with Benjarong for exclusive dinner

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Bangkok meets Manila: Michelin-starred Potong teams up with Benjarong for exclusive dinner

Jeeves De Veyra

Published Sep 23, 2025 05:50 PM PHT

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Benjarong X Potong

Dusit Thani Manila

Thai food

Chef Pam

Chef Ja

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