Gaggan is once again back on top

In the restaurant business, even more than most others, it’s very hard to come back once you have been written off.

Brilliant chefs are the toast of the global food community. And then, at the very next moment, they are forgotten and public attention has moved on to newer, more fashionable chefs.

 

Ask Gaggan Anand. He knows all about it.

 

   On Tuesday night when his eponymous Bangkok restaurant was crowned number one at the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants ceremony in Seoul, Korea, Anand was as reflective and relieved as he was thrilled. “Yes, it’s unbelievable“, he said, just after the honour was announced, “but I had to make it back just to prove that it was not over.”

  

   And God knows, many, if not most, people did think it was over even though it had begun so well. In 2015 just five years after he had opened his establishment serving an original take on Indian food, Gaggan’s restaurant hit number one on the list. As Indian cuisine had not been taken seriously till that point by the international food community his ranking caused a stir.

 

   People tried to explain it away. “Oh it’s not really Indian food,” they said. Or, “He is just riding the molecular cuisine wave.” Or even, “It is just a fluke.”

 

   The doubters were silenced when Gaggan continued to be number one for another three years. No restaurant had remained at the peak for four years; a record that was unbroken till this week.

 

   Then, just as suddenly as everything had gone right, it all went wrong. Gaggan fell out messily with his partners. The original Gaggan restaurant closed. Convinced he had to start again, the chef opened a new Gaggan restaurant across town. The entire kitchen team moved with him.

 

   It began well because what he offered was a further refinement of the experience that had made him famous. But just as he was enjoying his second coming, the Pandemic happened. All Bangkok restaurants had to close, a devastating blow to a chef who had abandoned his partners to risk going it alone.

 

   His marriage broke up. His Thai wife began to badmouth him. He sued her. Access to his beloved daughter became an issue. He continued to pay rent on the building where his restaurant was located but the lockdown went on for longer than anyone had anticipated and the debts accumulated.

 

   He looked for other ventures. A New York restaurant project came close to fruition before falling through. A residency at Singapore’s Mandala Club was wildly successful but ended bitterly.

 

   By the time the lockdown ended and he reopened his restaurant Gaggan found himself fighting many different fires. Fortunately he was successful. His domestic litigation eventually ended with him getting renewed access to his daughter. His staff came back to work, happy to cook with Gaggan again. And the restaurant was full once more.

 

"It’s an unusual approach but it has worked for Gaggan and, more significantly, it has worked for India and our cuisine."

   But within the food community he was sometimes seen as a chef with a glorious future behind him, as yesterday’s man. The top chefs who cooked with him at collaboration dinners knew that the food was better than it had ever been. But it’s never easy to fight the battle of foodie perception and Gaggan struggled.

 

   Nevertheless he would not give up. He abandoned some of his legendary volatility to take a more focused approach to his life (it helped that he is now in a stable and loving relationship with a famous Thai model-singer), cooked at restaurants around the world (including a month-long residency in Delhi) and when Louis Vuitton asked him to open a restaurant at its glamorous new Bangkok store, he grabbed the opportunity.

 

   Against the odds it has all worked out. He is once again back on top.

 

   When they called out his name in Seoul, Gaggan was in tears, unusual for a man who never shows vulnerability in public. I asked him what the journey had been like. “Initially I leaned towards self doubt and believed that my era was over. I wasn’t trendy any longer,” he said. “Most chefs in their late 40s will think how to retire. I just went the opposite direction. I worked harder, made sure we were not like any other restaurant and I turned the negativity into energy to make sure I created a better version of myself and my work.”

 

   He is right about Gaggan not being like any other restaurant in the world. It is part theatre and part food experience. Guests sit together at a horse shoe-shaped table and are taken through each course by chefs who explain the food, play (usually rock) music that suits the mood and tell jokes and stories about the dishes.

 

   All food fads are relentlessly mocked. One favourite subject is the trendy but largely nonsensical farm-to-table fad which becomes part of an extended gag about using local wildlife in the kitchen. (In Bangkok, they joke, that would be rats.) When Gaggan does the service himself he turns into a cross between a savant and a Mick Jagger-like performer. By the end of the evening the meal has become a party.

 

   It’s an unusual approach but it has worked for Gaggan and, more significantly, it has worked for India and our cuisine. Without Gaggan’s triumph the Asia 5O Best list is not good news for India. Only two restaurants made it to the list. Masque barely made the top 20 at 19 and Indian Accent fell to 46. Avartana dropped out completely despite winning every award in India.

 

   In contrast Gaggan had not just the number one slot but also Gaggan at Louis Vuitton which came in at 31. (A third Gaggan restaurant Ms Maria and Mr Singh was on the less prestigious 51-100 part of the list.)

 

   I asked Gaggan what Indian restaurants needed to do to up their game.

 

   “Young Indian chefs need to think again and reimagine the future using the past and to make the most of our country’s diversity and food culture. India is a very strong food nation and let’s not waste time trying to ferment, foam and forage. Let’s perfect and reinvent our grandma’s recipes with modern Indian cooking techniques,” he suggested.

 

   It’s worked for Gaggan as anyone who has eaten at his restaurants will know. So the record-setting fifth number one ranking is a huge personal triumph. But it’s more than that: his success has made India and Indian food shine.