Deepali Nandwani
Editor
Chef Gaggan Anand is an enigma difficult to decode.
He is among one of the greatest chefs of Indian origin, and his accolades — two Michelin stars, and his restaurant, Gaggan listed as number one on Asia’s 50 Best four years in a row — are reflective of his genius.
Gaggan Anand (left) is in India for a 20-day residency, where he will serve a meal at Rs 50,000 per person.
But he is also mercurial. On August 2019, for instance, Anand, after the usual service at his Lab — where he experimented with Indian food in ways not many have done before him, or after — took off his chef’s jacket, and said a quiet goodbye to a restaurant he gave a decade of his life to.
In June, he had already announced that he, and his team of 65, have resigned; on August 25, the restaurant will close its doors permanently due to creative differences with his investors.
Gaggan returned two months later with a new restaurant, but then Covid happened. And yet, a year later, in March 2021, his new restaurant landed at No.5 in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list, picking up the Highest New Entry Award.
In October 2022, he hopped over to Singapore to set up Ms Maria & Mr Singh, a casual Mexican-Indian diner backed by a fictitious origin story that reflects a love affair between a Mexican girl and an Indian boy!
Then, in November, he announced the opening of his first restaurant in Fukuoka’s La Maison de la Nature Goh, Japan, with an unconventional kind of cuisine: chef Takeshi ‘Goh’ Fukuyam’s take on modern Japanese cuisine and his own brand of modern Indian food.
And now, Chef Anand is here in India, for a 20-day residency where he will serve Indians a multi-course modern Indian meal at Rs 50,000 per person.
He says, in an interview with Traveldine, “India is home, and I always wanted to come back to do something here. After a very successful nine-month residency in Singapore posts the pandemic, we knew that India was on the cards. Now, here we are — with a 20-day residency at Hyatt Regency, Delhi.”
Read our interview and book your evening date with Gaggan for a meal experience that promises to be spectacular.
The TravelDine newsletter this week also features six of the hottest global hotel openings in 2023. My favourite is Nobu Hotel Marrakech, the brand’s first venture in Africa, with its baroque-meets-Asian interiors. In other stories, read about how the classic sarson ka saag transformed from a humble farmer’s meal to the ‘hottest’ Indian winter meal.
(Left) Nobu Hotel Marrakech; (Right) The Tamara, Coorg
We bring to your inbox reviews of Noche, Delhi’s first restaurant serving Latin American cuisine, and The Tamara Coorg, a hotel that stands deep within the southern destination’s scenic hills, coffee estates, and forests.
Here is everything you need to plan your next weekend.