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Chef Garima Arora on winning two Michelin stars
Summary
The chef who runs the two Michelin-starred restaurant Gaa in Bangkok, talks about opening a restobar in Gurugram later this month, and says she chases flavours like a child
Last week, chef Garima Arora made Indian culinary enthusiasts proud. For the second consecutive year, her fine-dining spot, Restaurant Gaa in Bangkok, received two Michelin stars. It’s a first for a female Indian chef, and the latest in her bag of many achievements.
Gaa was awarded the first Michelin star in 2018; she was named Asia’s Best Female Chef by the platform Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2019; and in 2023, her Michelin star count increased to two, which she has retained this year. It is no small feat. It shows unflinching tenacity and consistency. Arora cooks inventive Indian cuisine in Bangkok using locally available Thai ingredients and heads a team of chefs from different parts of Asia. At 38, she is among the many young expat chefs to become a flag-bearer of modern Indian dining, while securing a spot among the best.
Gaa opened in 2017. Those expecting the usual naan and curry fare, were in for a surprise. Instead, on the menu was Mumbai-style spice-coated corn cooked over coal, daal baati with banana flower, and pork ribs with onion and coriander. “In fact, it has become our (unintentional) selling point—go to this Indian restaurant and you won’t get curries and naans," she says on the phone from Bangkok.
Her food incorporates Indian techniques and plays with ingredients. Explaining her approach, she says, “We don’t recreate recipes, we create recipes from scratch."
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Consider the main course in her tasting menu, a dish named The Tandoori Story, which is durian prepared in a tandoor—a melding of a Thai ingredient and an Indian cooking technique. Sharing the back story, she says, “In our test kitchen, one of my chefs was eating durian. I took a piece and put it in the tandoor to see what happens, and it led to this dish." It was a spontaneous experiment highlighting her innovative mode of operation, and it reflects in her menu too.
Arora chooses to serve vegetarian as the main course to disrupt the “western" norm of serving only meat in this segment of the tasting menu.
“I wanted to break out of that mould and showcase the way we cook vegetables back home, which is probably far more exciting, satisfying and straight up tasty. Our main course has always been vegetarian—something we have been consistent with and take pride in."
Arora believes her food is fun and imbued with a thought-provoking element. “I always chase that feeling of eating something new for the first time. We used to have these experiences a lot as children but we lose that as adults. I want my guests, who are probably in their 40s or 50s, to eat here and experience a new combination of flavours or texture—like a child," she explains.
The Summer Curry in her tasting menu has this element of new. It is a frozen curry streaked with crab meat that leaves diners surprised and coming back for more. While her current menu is a potpourri of street foods, her Punjabi heritage and influences from Mumbai, where she grew up, her next menu will feature micro-cuisines.
Gaa is not her only food venture in Bangkok. She also runs the cloud kitchen Marigold serving mithais and chaats, and is the founder of the non-profit Food Forward India that documents the diverse local cuisines of India. Currently, she is busy preparing for the launch of her brand new project, Banng in collaboration with serial restaurateur Riyaaz Amlani. It will be a casual restobar serving Thai food in Gurugram and is set to open by mid December.
“For me, Banng is coming full circle. A decade ago, I visited Thailand, explored the food here, and opened a restaurant as a nod to my Indian heritage combined with my culinary finds in a new country. When you live in a new place, the first thing you do is eat the food. I have grown to adore and appreciate it so much. Now, I get to do it the other way around and take it back to my home country. The food at Banng will be Thai," she says.
The purity of flavours is sacrosanct. The Thai curry pastes will be made in Bangkok and flown to Gurugram twice a week. There will be traces of Indian influences in dishes, such as a Thai pani puri.
As for her professional plans for next year, she aims to imbue the tenets of Indian hospitality in Gaa. “For the longest time, (premium) restaurants subscribed to a western standard of service with silverware and white gloves. It transformed into loud music and being extremely casual with guests, which is the opposite of staid, formal western hospitality. Then there is Asian or Indian hospitality where we make guests feel at home with our warmth. I want to bring this to Gaa," she says, once again underlining her innate need to “break moulds", imprint her Indian identity and elevate the dining experience overall.
