'Dee Daa' is a Thai food restaurant in New York City with food that tastes like it was prepared Thailand—because part of it is.
Mallika Sukjaro is the entrepreneur behind the fast casual restaurant, who has plans to franchise her concept of flash-freezing certain portions of a meal to retain a recipe's authenticity. The technique takes a page from molecular gastronomy and requires all the restaurant's sauces to be prepared overseas in Thailand in individually frozen pouches. This way, customers are able to enjoy the freshest regional ingredients like tamarind, Thai basil and kafir lime in the same way that locals enjoy them.
After freezing, the pouches are shipped to the New York eatery, where dishes are prepared extremely quickly on the spot; only at this point are vegetables and meat added to the dishes.
Why This Trend Is Growing
- Authentic-focused Fast Casual Dining
- Opportunity for restaurants to adopt flash-freezing techniques to retain the authenticity of regional cuisines.
- Molecular Gastronomy-inspired Techniques
- Disruption potential in using molecular gastronomy techniques to enhance flavors and prolong shelf life of ingredients.
- International Ingredient Sourcing
- Innovation opportunity for sourcing and importing regional ingredients to recreate authentic flavors in global markets.
Industries Being Reshaped
- Restaurant and Food Service
- Restaurants can explore flash-freezing techniques to differentiate and offer authentic regional cuisines to customers.
- Culinary Innovation
- Molecular gastronomy techniques can spur innovation in the culinary industry by experimenting with new flavors and techniques.
- Import and Export
- Opportunity for businesses to specialize in sourcing and importing regional ingredients for restaurants seeking authentic flavors.
