Local Personalities

Bruno Forrer – not forgotten!

by Dr. Iain Corness

Alois X. Fassbind and Bruno Forrer

With new restaurants appearing almost daily it seems, such as the reborn Mata Hari and the latest Italian addition called Gian’s, and the new Sheraton Pattaya Resort turning on a Chaine des Rotisseurs dinner which evoked memories of the past splendor of the Chaine’s gastronomic evenings, two names returned to mind. Those of Alois X Fassbind and Bruno Forrer, one the extraverted showman and the other one of Pattaya’s supreme restaurateurs. However, both of these men were to shape the culinary destiny of Pattaya.
After Bruno died three years ago, I wrote “We will all have different memories of Bruno Forrer, a man who shrugged off suggestions that he had reached the top, by saying, “I would never call myself the best - that would be a most unprofessional thing to say.” Bruno Forrer was above all, a gentleman. A gentleman who will be missed, but who will not be forgotten.” I was correct, he has not been forgotten.
Bruno was gracious, charming and hospitable. However, he was not “to the manor born”. He came from a small Swiss farming community in the countryside above Lake Constance. His father was not a gentleman farmer, easily able to pass on the rules of etiquette to his son, but a simple man. However, the village farming life did not interest the young Bruno Forrer. In a previous interview eight years ago, he had recounted, “It was so boring, I just wanted to escape.”
Escape for Bruno was into the hospitality industry, but telling his father he wanted to be an hotelier brought an initial negative response from Forrer Senior. “No way! You should first become a chef. This is respectable,” continuing with, “If you don’t want to do this first, then don’t even consider it.” Forrer Senior may have been from a simple farming community, but he was instilling into his son the seeds of what is ‘right and proper’.
Bruno accepted his father’s advice that a profession, together with hard work would be necessary for success. He underwent the apprenticeships that hoteliers have to endure – long hours and indifferent remuneration, but in the end there were the rewards that only the interaction with the guests can bring, for someone who has the hospitality industry as an integral part of their own psyche. Bruno Forrer had found his own métier around the tables of some of the best restaurants in Europe.
Bruno was also a collector of antiques, beginning early on while working at the Dorchester in London. During our interview in 1998 he admitted, “I have a passion for collecting. It is like being an addict - I have to have something, even though I have no place to put it!” The long hours and a personal frugal life-style helped pay for his treasures, but these in turn provoked jealousy from a fellow hotel worker and a call from the British Inland Revenue Department! The annual, “Please explain how you can afford these?” and subsequent detailing of his art collection became the catalyst for his move to Thailand when his old friend Louis Fassbind suggested he join him at the Oriental in Bangkok. This was another venue, of the standard that befitted a man like Bruno Forrer.
From the Oriental he moved to Pattaya and to the Royal Cliff Beach Resort, where he became a household name during his 21 years as the resident manager there. However, the long hours eventually prompted a major change for Bruno. “I wanted something easier than hotels where you start at 6 in the morning and to bed at 10 p.m.,” so he left and opened his own restaurant in 1996, with the help of Louis Fassbind.
Unfortunately age and infirmity can catch up with us all, and after Louis Fassbind’s death, Bruno continued, his smiling face always at the tables, sharing a joke or a memory. But this was not to last forever.
In 2002 his health began to fade. However, he continued to be a presence at his restaurant with many people freely admitting that they would go just to see Bruno again. This was particularly true of annual visitors to Pattaya. Their trip to SE Asia was not complete without a chat with Bruno Forrer.
Despite his health restrictions, which began to make themselves apparent, he had no intention of retiring in the formally accepted sense. In 1998 he had said, “I will go on as long as I live. Eventually I will maybe come in for just one or two hours in the evening. I always want to be coming back so I can see my friends.”
Now his “one or two hours in the evening” are a matter of pleasant culinary memories too, but it was interesting to see at the Sheraton Chaine des Rotisseurs dinner last weekend, just how the name of Bruno Forrer came back to so many. He was the man who put “class”, that intangible aspect, into dining in this sometimes noisy and brash resort city. That so many others are now emulating his work is almost an epitaph to the life of Bruno Forrer, even though he would deny it, being the epitome of tact and diplomacy. I can still hear him when he said, “That would be a most unprofessional thing to say.”
He was certainly a ‘gentleman’ from the old school. A man who is still missed, but will not be forgotten.