“Cambodia has an amazing range of ingredients with incredible potential. We only use ingredients produced in Cambodia, preferably in Siem Reap Province. After seven years of running the restaurant and fifteen years in Cambodia, we have built a network of farmers, foragers and suppliers that can guarantee the quality and origin of all our products.”

Soup of beef cheeks with charcoal-burnt green papaya, broth, oxtail flavoured with burnt garlic and lemongrass, shiny cresson, wild rice paddy herb and bilimbi; and seafood pancake with homemade oyster sauce, fermented chilli sauce, and wintermelon pickles.

Named after the nearby Buddhist pagoda, Cuisine Wat Damnak is helmed by French Chef Joannès Rivière, born to a Roanne restaurant family that grew vegetables for Michelin three-starred La Maison Troisgros. As a result, Rivière is passionate about seasonal produce, offering just two tasting menus that change every two weeks to take advantage of the freshest ingredients. While Rivière sources most produce from local farming cooperatives, it’s not unusual to find him joking in Khmer with sellers at Siem Reap’s colonial-era market. Although he prefers not to boast about his sustainability efforts – he believes these should be the norm – Rivière is committed to reducing the restaurant’s environmental impact, keeping kitchen waste to a minimum, composting, recycling, and even reusing old oil and fat in the generator that provides electricity during the popular tourist destination’s power outages.