L'Art du Partage: Topaz Brings Together Four Chefs and Penfolds' Great Wines

Four chefs, four courses, and a run of Penfolds' best-known labels — that was the shape of “Le Terroir Retrouvé” at Topaz in Phnom Penh. The idea was simple enough: build each dish around what a specific wine does on the palate. What came out of it, guests said afterward, felt less like a wine dinner and more like two very different terroirs finally getting a chance to talk to each other.

Between courses, guests traded notes with the kitchen team

The name of the evening, “L'Art du Partage,” undersold it a little. Four chefs signed the menu: Phyra Hem of The Commune, Sopheak Pov of Topaz, Sopheak Sao of Malis Siem Reap, and pastry chef Panharith Hak, all under the Thalias Hospitality banner. Penfolds supplied the wine list — including, unannounced until it hit the table, a pour of the label's flagship, Penfolds Grange.

Four courses, four ideas

Phyra Hem opened with Sériole Marinée au Citron Vert — cured yellowtail, Mondulkiri avocado, passion fruit, Baeri caviar — set against the precision of Bin 311 Chardonnay. Then came Sopheak Pov's escargot consommé. The broth alone took eight hours: lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime and turmeric, clarified the classic French way, then finished with a snail mousseline, Kampot pepper and truffle. Koonunga Hill Autumn Riesling went with it, its aromatics tracking the broth almost note for note.

The consommé arrives at the table still being finished

Sopheak Sao's course looked back to something more domestic — duck roasting at dusk in a Khmer village — reworked as smoked duck breast with tamarind, fried rice and braised cabbage, poured against Bin 389, the wine known informally as “Baby Grange.” Cheese came before dessert: Topaz's own Bleu de Prek Leap, made in-house, next to the more assertive Bin 150 Shiraz. Panharith Hak closed things out with glazed banana, black sweet rice, palm sugar caramel, coconut espuma, and a shard of crisp nom kreab.

Watching the chefs work

Arnaud Darc, Thalias Hospitality's CEO, who put the evening together, said watching the four chefs present their food with that kind of confidence ranked among his proudest moments as a restaurateur. He described what they'd built as proof of what Thalias has become — Cambodian talent, he said, capable of speaking French gastronomy at an international level, with every course built around a specific idea rather than assembled to impress.

He went further in describing what the night meant to him: a conversation, in his words, between Australian vineyards and Cambodian terroir, between craftsmanship and creativity, between tradition and innovation. Above all, he said, it was evidence that Cambodia has chefs today capable of work that belongs on an international stage.

Lina Hak, Thalias Hospitality's COO, came away with much the same impression, if less formally put. “Pure magic,” she called it — every dish telling a story, every sip lifting the moment a little further. Fine dining, for her, is exactly that: the point where cuisine turns into art and wine into something closer to poetry.

Not every course landed the same

One notable face at the table was Sam Taroth, the martial arts fighter and actress, who had good things to say about nearly everything served. Her favourite, she said afterward, was probably the opening course — Phyra Hem's cured yellowtail — for how well its flavours balanced against each other.

Not every course won her over equally. The cheese course, Bleu de Prek Leap alongside the Bin 150 Shiraz, struck her as something built for a narrower audience. “Really for cheese lovers,” as she put it — a fair verdict, and a reminder that even a menu this considered doesn't have to land the same way for everyone at the table.

What it took to get there

Darc closed by thanking the guests, Penfolds, and the Topaz team down to the last person — the same team, he said, whose work turned months of planning into one evening that people would actually remember. It's the kind of line restaurateurs say often. This time, from what made it to the table, it was hard to argue with.

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