(January 5, 2023) When a 60-year-old traditional Thai house is transformed into a unique dining destination, one expects to find magic served on every plate at the restaurant. And Chef Garima Arora doesn’t disappoint. At Gaa – which has earned the reputation of being one of the best Indian restaurants in Bangkok – she creates a one-of-a-kind Indian dining experience that has helped it bag two Michelin stars, thus helping Chef Garima script history by becoming the only Indian woman chef to achieve the feat. The achievement comes in a few months after Garima embraced motherhood, and welcomed her child Aham. “I am absolutely thrilled and excited,” she tells Global Indian.
Yet, in the same breath, she tips her chef’s hat to her team, acknowledging their pivotal role in this culinary triumph. “This is a great validation to my team and the dedication that they have put in. This transition that I’ve been able to make from being a business owner and chef and to now also a mom, I wouldn’t be able to do it so seamlessly without my stellar team. I can’t take all the credit. It all belongs to my team,” she adds.
Chef Garima Arora
Gaa took Bangkok – and the culinary world – by storm with its stellar debut in 2017, so much so that within a year it earned its first Michelin star. Over the last five years, Garima has been dedicated to transforming how people view Indian cuisine, producing, as a result, an array of award-winning vegetarian dishes. “You can spend a lifetime in India and not finish the entire cuisine. This is why it’s unique to us and also why we have to explore more and take it to the world. We have so much history, technique, and recipes that will die down with generations to come,” she says, adding, “Hopefully, we will save some of the cooking recipes and see our cuisine evolve from where it is today.”
Ask her what’s that one thing one can’t miss on Gaa’s menu, and pat comes the reply, “One of the dishes that I am most excited about is our Tandoori Durian main course. At Gaa, our main course has always been vegetarian and we are very proud of how Indian techniques are capable of drawing so much umami from vegetables in a way that you don’t miss meat.”
Gobi parantha served at Gaa
Dad’s the inspiration
Growing up in a Punjabi family deeply passionate about food, Chef Garima developed a love for the aromas, textures, and emotional connection within delectable cuisines from a young age. In the 90s, her kitchen saw some exotic dishes like hummus and rum baba being whipped up by her dad; the recipes of which he brought back from international travels. “My dad showed me the joy that comes from cooking.”
While her love for food was simmering on a low flame, she pursued Mass Media from Jai Hind College, Mumbai, which led her start a career as a pharma journalist. But she soon realised that being a chef was her true calling, and left for Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris. “At 21, it opened my world of food and cooking. I tried many things for the very first time. For someone who wants to start a career as a Chef, this is the right place to be. Paris is very much like a playground – a Disneyland, with cuisines from all over the world,” she smiles.
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Learning from culinary legends
Her time at the culinary school laid the groundwork, and she soon found herself at Noma, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Copenhagen, learning alongside legendary Danish chef René Redzepi. Under his guidance, Chef Garima began to perceive cooking as a cerebral experience. “I learnt to think cerebrally about food and think about what I was putting on a plate rather than put ingredients together by chance. It made me realise that food was also an intellectual exercise rather than just a blue-collar job,” she reveals.
After cooking up a storm at Noma, Garima was poised to launch her restaurant in India. But a sudden detour led her to Bangkok to work as sous chef alongside Chef Gaggan Anand at his Michelin-starred restaurant, Gaggan. Originally intended to be a temporary stopover, Garima ended up opening Gaa, a three-storeyed restaurant in Bangkok that pays homage to traditional Indian techniques through a modern tasting menu.
Summer Curry served at Gaa
Carving a niche
Gaa, which beautifully captures the vibrancy of Bangkok and the amalgamation of cultural influences, is an avant-garde restaurant that serves progressive Indian cuisine with local Thai ingredients and influences. Born out of her determination to rediscover and reform the narrative on Indian food, she was keen to show the world that Indian cuisine is beyond curries and naan. “Simply put, we explore vegetarian Indian cuisine with Thailand as a backdrop by weaving local Thai and East Asian ingredients to create a one-of-a-kind dining experience, which showcases the modern relevance of Indian cooking techniques,” says Garima whose restaurant won its first Michelin star in 2018. She added another jewel when she was named Asia’s Best Female Chef for 2019 by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Gaa restaurant in Bangkok
With each accomplishment, she is breaking through barriers in the culinary world as Chef Garima is on a mission to showcase Indian cuisine globally. She finds joy in the fact that Indian chefs are embracing their heritage and showcasing it on the plate. “We will see more Indian chefs championing their own food culture. In general, people are starting to look inward which is a very good thing. For the longest time we look to the West for inspiration but it’s time we recognise and give value to all the incredible resources we have in our own country.”
Despite two Michelin stars under her belt, Garima, who is now one of the most celebrated female chefs in Thailand, has no plans for expansion “as of now.” However, she quips, “I have learnt to never say never!” She is keen to give an opportunity to young talented chefs who worked with her to start their kitchens.
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The award-winning chef, who has her hands full with her restaurant and parenthood, is a firm believer in giving back, and this led her to start The Food Forward Initiative in 2019 to give a new perspective on Indian cuisine to the world. “With all the traction we get from the accolades, I wanted to do good with it. Rather than talking about myself, it’s better to use this platform that I now have to speak more about our culture and cuisine, which hopefully will benefit the next generation of chefs to come,” she signs off.
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