In less than a month, the finest chefs and restaurateurs from all over the world will descent on Australia for the Restaurants 2017. Whist here, they will have an opportunity to try out the best food and wine the country has to offer. They will also participate in a series of special talk shows which will be held over two days in Sydney and Melbourne.
Amongst these 50 Best Chefs, will be Gaggan Anand, an Indian origin chef from Bangkok.
Gaggan is the owner and executive chef of the progressive Indian restaurant “Gaggan” in Bangkok.
Chef Gaggan Anand Source: Supplied
Gaggan was born in Kolkata to Punjabi parents but he travelled around the country a lot for his education. He left India and opened his restaurant “Gaggan” in Bangkok in 2010 and since then, it has climbed heights of success at a fast pace. His restaurant has been placed in The World’s Best 50 Restaurants list numerous times and in 2014 was ranked 17th in global ratings.
SBS Punjabi caught up with Gaggan prior to his visit to Australia in April as part of the World’s 50 best.
Gaggan Restaurant in Bangkok Source: Supplied
Speaking to SBS Punjabi, Gaggan said that even though he was born in a Punjabi family, his cooking is inspired by all parts of India. He calls his cooking progressive as it always has a modern twist to it, be it in presenting his food or the way it is cooked.
Food is a big part of Punjabi family culture and he admits that he got the inspiration from his mother who gave him the “magic”. He quite frankly admits that he was born in a poor family but he chose to not accept it as his destiny and worked towards changing it.
Yoghurt at Gaggan Source: Supplied
“My father gave me poverty; my mother gave me the magic of cooking.”
He said everyone has a choice, and he chose to take this magic and run with it and that is why he is who he is today.
On being questioned about his decision to move out of India to pursue his dream, he said that he was forced to make this decision as India was not ready for it. According to Gaggan, there is a brain drainage in India, where people are not ready to accept the artists the way they want to be accepted. According to him, there still isn’t a proper Indian restaurant that represents the whole country. His art of cooking and presenting food is progressive and artistic and his kitchen looks more like a science lab than anything else, and India was not ready for this kind of modern presentation of food. His food however, is still nostalgic that takes diners back to their Indian roots.
One of the peculiar things about “Gaggan”, his restaurant in Bangkok is that out of 25 courses, one three are served with cutlery and the rest are eaten by hands. Gaggan says that in Indian culture we cook with hands – any bread is cooked with hands, a ‘roti’ in langar is served and received with hands, therefore, he wanted to represent his culture in his restaurant also by the way it is served. Gaggan insists that his restaurant is non-pretentious, where he is trying to be eastern rather than western.
Galar Halwa Source: Supplied
Gaggan’s future plans are to open a restaurant in Japan.
