Siem Reap's grandest address is turning dinner into performance art. On 16 October, Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor hosts "The Khmer Table & Canvas," a five-course four-hands dinner at its 1932 fine-dining restaurant, where two of Cambodia's most respected chefs cook side by side while a resident artist paints each course in real time.
The collaboration pairs Executive Sous Chef Dorn Doeurt, a Siem Reap native known at 1932 for tasting menus built around different eras of Cambodian history, with guest Chef Seng Sothea, one of the country's most dedicated champions of Khmer cooking. Sothea runs Mahob Khmer and the newer farm-to-table restaurant Lum Orng, growing much of his own produce on organic land near the jungle temple of Beng Mealea. He has cooked in luxury kitchens from Le Méridien Siem Reap to Dubai's Grand Hyatt, and his work carries weight: much of Cambodia's culinary tradition was destroyed under the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s, and chefs like him are rebuilding it dish by dish.
The menu leans into local ingredients with real intent. Expect sea bass sous-vide-crusted with rice paddy herbs alongside an Amok velouté, coconut foam and a mushroom and preserved soya bean casserole, plus roasted duck breast glazed with honey from the Kulen mountains, eggplant caviar, morning glory and a lemongrass and sour-leaf gravy.
Meanwhile, Raffles resident artist Nou Sary will translate each plate onto ceramic canvases as the evening unfolds. Diners can buy the finished pieces, so the night could send you home with both a full stomach and a one-of-a-kind souvenir.
Dinner starts at 7pm and costs $75++ per person, which is a fair price for a five-course meal from two notable chefs, let alone the live art. Seats are limited — reservations go through the hotel on +855 23 982 598 or via raffles.com/siem-reap.
The venue itself is a reason to book. Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor sits steps from the ancient Khmer temples around Angkor, and it has just been named among the World's "500 Best Hotels" by Travel + Leisure, which also ranked it and its Phnom Penh sibling Raffles Hotel Le Royal as the top two city hotels in Cambodia in its Luxury Awards Asia-Pacific 2026.
Why it matters: this is a one-night event, so even travellers with Siem Reap on the list for later in the year will miss it unless they're there on 16 October. But it also signals a broader shift worth planning around — Cambodian cuisine, long overshadowed by Thai and Vietnamese food, is getting serious restaurant moments in Siem Reap. If you can't make the dinner, Sothea's Lum Orng and Mahob Khmer are worth a table on their own, and 1932's historical tasting menus run year-round. Either way, build at least one dedicated food evening into an Angkor trip; the temples by day and this emerging dining scene by night make a strong combination.
