Benihana Restaurant is part of a global franchise owned by The Minor Group outside of the USA which originated in California. In Phuket, Benihana is located at the J W Marriott, Mai Khao.

The function is typical of how we like to run our Ordre Mondial des Gourmets Dégustateurs (OMGD) events. The three essential ingredients: excellent food, interesting paired spirits (sake) and great friendships plus lots of fun!

There were 19 members and guests who made the trip to the J W Marriott with three couples taking advantage of the special deal offered by General Manager George Verughese (also Bailli Honoraire from his days in Malacca).

It was great to see our Vice-Argentier Bob Gaussen and his wife Khun Ann back from their trip to the International OMGD Grand Chapitre in Hungary especially after Bob’s serious health challenge whilst there.

Food and Beverage Director Dinesh created two special cocktails: one with Japanese Gin, the other with Japanese Whisky. What a way to start the evening!

The photos of the night say it all yet don’t really capture the freshness of the fish in the sashimi or the full amount of delicious food we enjoyed.

Asian food is not normally the focus of either a Chaîne or OMGD event. It worked extremely well being part of an amazing show by gifted Thai chefs who adopted Japanese techniques of knife juggling, egg spinning and flipping. Overall, a great deal of fun was created as part of the dinner. Only our Thai ladies Khun Kathy, Khun Ann and Chef Phonchan were brave enough to try and flip and catch spinning eggs.

At the end of the evening Bailli Ian Lancaster presented General Manager George with a framed Certificate of Appreciation for Benihana. In addition, the six chefs and seven serving staff each received a Chaîne Certificate of Appreciation.

Ian Lancaster
Bailli