AsiaLIFE

The latest addition to Phnom Penh’s culinary scene, Scoop serves up impressive cuisine in a chic and stylish setting. Lis Meyers sits down to lunch with partner and chef Reiner Thieding to find out what’s cooking at his new restaurant.

Reiner Thieding has long been passionate about food. “I started to cook professionally when I was 12 and grew up cooking with my mother,” he says. Enjoying the sense of creating while cooking, he considers it the highest compliment when he receives praise from his customers. Fortunately for Reiner, his new restaurant is well on track to receive rave reviews.

The Globetrotter Returns to the Kitchen

A longstanding globetrotter, Reiner amassed extensive culinary knowledge as he travelled the world working in five-star hotels in New York, Bermuda, Saudi Arabia, Monte Carlo, Jordan, Vietnam and the cruise liner Silver Sea Cruises. Having served as Hotel InterContinental’s food and beverage manager for two years, Reiner finally decided it was time to return to the kitchen. Working in hotels, he felt he was spending too much time behind a desk and too little time creating in the kitchen. “I don’t like administrative work too much and there comes a point when you decide to do what you really want to do,” he explains. “Cooking and people are my passion. I enjoy talking to people and giving personalised service. I enjoy creating an experience and giving customers something special.”

Simple Chic

The restaurant has a distinctive, stylish atmosphere that is perhaps unmatched in Phnom Penh. The sophisticated space is perfect for a business lunches, family dinner or a girls’ night out for cocktails. After working in and visiting so many international restaurants, we had a lot of ideas,” says Reiner. “The main objective was to achieve a simplicity while making it hip.” Scoop’s interior is mostly white and black, with splashes of colour to be found in pink napkins and retro-patterned cushions. White leather, high-backed chairs surround sleek black tables. Cutlery, plates, and glasses all have funky and fresh designs. The space also features a cool lounge area with red and green swivel chairs and light fixtures that constantly fade in and out of various colours.

Chef’s Secrets

Though Reiner cooks by a few simple rules – believing this to be the perfect recipe for a successful kitchen and restaurant – he constantly seeks to perfect and refine each dish. “I will never be finished with something,” he says. “There will always be something I can do better.” He also enjoys putting elements of surprise into his dishes. “Whatever we do, we try to do it with something a little different with a twist.” Believing food to only be as good as its ingredients, Reiner ensures that only top quality products go into Scoop’s dishes. “We respect ingredients. We only buy the best. There is no negotiation,” he says. A simple example of this is Scoop’s green apple juice (US$4.50). 100 percent natural and very refreshing, it is anything but the standard apple-like concoction you once drank from juice boxes.

The restaurant also aims to make as much food as possible in-house. Only homemade pasta is served at Scoop’s tables, with fresh angel hair, fettuccini, and linguini made daily. Accompanying pasta sauces include carbonara cream sauce with bacon and mushroom (US$10) or a gorgonzola cheese sauce (US$12) with chicken and spinach. Even the bread and butter takes on a sophisticated air at Scoop, with the restaurant’s “café de Paris” butter made with 36 different kinds of ingredients. All dishes served at Scoop can also be seen as edible works of art, with enormous attention going into the presentation of each dish. Consommé cherry tomatoes (US$4.35) comes garnished with a delicate rice crisp covering the bowl like a large snowflake. The “profiteroles to fall in love with” (US$4.50) are dainty delights with heart shaped pastries propelled by edible wings.

The Scoop Family

As hard as Reiner and his business partners have worked to put together a successful top-notch eatery, they recognise that their restaurant will only be as good as their weakest link. They put a great emphasis in making the restaurant a positive working environment for all staff. “I have a very good team,” Reiner says. “My objective was not to look for skill, but for positive attitude and happiness. Skill I can teach.”

All staff went through an extensive two and a half months of training. Everyone in the kitchen played an integral role in refining and perfecting the menu. Seeking to foster a family-like atmosphere, Reiner plans team-building events, including boat parties along the Mekong and future retreats to Sihanoukville Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong. Now back in the kitchen and at the helm, Reiner feels at home. Asked how he feels to finally have his own restaurant, Reiner smiles. “It is great! I am so happy and I get to be so creative.” The rest of Phnom Penh should be happy, as well.

Scoop Bistro Bar, 2–6A Regency Square, Mao Tse Tung Blvd. Tel: 023 216 130