Blue Elephant opens in Thailand at last

After 20 years of promoting Thai cuisine and culture around the world, the Blue Elephant group is set to open its first restaurant in Thailand.

Blue Elephant International is investing Bt25m (£403,000) in a cookery school and 60-seat restaurant in Bangkok, as well as expanding its franchise operation in the Middle East.

The cookery school, which will open on 15 August, will serve as a training centre for kitchen and service personnel and management, to meet the staffing needs of the current nine Blue Elephant restaurants in Europe, India and the Middle East. There will be two classes a day, each taking 28 students.

By 2003, the company will have opened three new Blue Elephants. A franchise at the Hilton hotel in Kuwait City will open this autumn, to be followed by a stand-alone restaurant in Bahrain, and another at the Grand Rotana hotel in Abu Dhabi next year.

The group's flagship London branch is running a gastronomic and cultural festival celebrating the Esarn region of north-eastern Thailand from 15 July to 31 August. The 285-seat restaurant, which employs 120 staff, is the group's most successful outlet, with annual sales of £4m.

by Ben Walker