PROFILE: GARIMA ARORA

Garima Arora

The Michelin-star chef is just getting started.

WORDS Annabelle Cloros

GARIMA ARORA’S CULINARY journey started with a hotpot. It was the dish that unlocked her love of food and cooking after she recreated it for her family upon her return from a trip to Singapore. The power of the hotpot was so great that she traded her life in Mumbai and career in journalism for an enrollment at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Arora went on to secure a commis chef role at Gordon Ramsay’s Verre in Dubai before working at Noma alongside René Redzepi for three years.

After cooking abroad for so long, the call of home was ringing loud and clear. What was meant to be a quick stop in Bangkok turned into another life-altering moment, with the chef realising the connection between her birth country and the country that was about to become her new home.

Hospitality speaks to Arora about the progression of Indian cuisine, balancing work with family, and why she didn’t choose Thailand — it chose her.

Garima Arora’s name is synonymous with culinary excellence. She is the first female Indian chef to receive two Michelin stars, was voted Asia’s Best Female Chef in 2019, and is the first female judge on MasterChef India. Her restaurant Gaa is currently ranked no.33 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list. She is the founder of Food Forward India and a supporter of the Chef Cares program, an initiative that offers culinary education to disadvantaged children. She’s also a mother.

I had to reiterate that curries and naan are not Indian food, but a colonised version of Indian food.

– Garima Arora

But before all the accolades started flowing in, Arora made a pivotal decision. “When I first moved to Thailand, it was on a temporary basis,” says the chef. “I was supposed to be in the city for three months and then move to Mumbai — that never happened. One thing led to another, and I was approached by a group of investors who offered me the chance to create and run my own restaurant. The rest is history.”

The opportunity to open and front a restaurant of your own is the goal for many chefs. Gaa was always going to be something special as it is rooted in an idea that had yet to be seen in the culinary world. Fostering the links between Thailand and India is not only the backbone of Gaa, but the reason why Arora decided to remain in Thailand. “What solidified my decision to stay back was the connection India and Thailand share,” she says. “This is something nobody talks about or something I had never heard about or thought of before. There are connections between the people, language, mythology, gods, food, and culture. Everything is so interconnected and intertwined, but somehow was never spoken of. The more time I spent here and got to know the people and made some friends, I realised Bangkok could be a great backdrop to explore modern Indian cooking.”

Gaa opened inside a traditional Thai house in 2017 — a milestone Arora names as the most noteworthy of her career, an achievement that surpasses categorical accolades, though she is of course proud of every award. “That was one of my biggest achievements and dreams to have opened a restaurant,” she says. “It was a dream come true. I never thought I would end up in Bangkok opening a restaurant here. But you know, sometimes life has its own way of playing out, and I’m glad I’ve landed here.”

The average diner’s knowledge and understanding of Indian cuisine has changed considerably over the past seven years, which can be attributed to several factors. People are generally more well-travelled; they also have an interest in discovering different cuisines. But it hasn’t always been this way. “When I started with Gaa, we opened as an Indian restaurant,” says Arora. “People came in expecting curries and naan. I had to reiterate that curries and naan are not Indian food, but a colonised version of Indian food that has been exported in the name of Indian cuisine for the longest time. I’m not saying it’s not part of our culinary heritage. Of course, it has its place. But there is so much more to offer.

It took us a while to shed away the curry and naan expectations and give people a taste of what real Indian food can be. Now when guests come in, they are much more open-minded; they have a better understanding of Indian food and what it really is. We try to work with this to continue pushing forward a more authentic narrative.”

I always say, ‘I think encouragement is not needed for women’. We know what we want just as much as anyone else.

– Garima Arora

Arora estimates 70 per cent of guests are tourists, with the remaining 30 per cent made up by local diners. There are a total of 15 dishes on the Gaa experience menu, with just one featuring fish and one featuring meat. The kitchen uses locally sourced Thai ingredients teamed with Indian techniques such as pickling and cooking over charcoal to create the courses, each of which are served on tableware made in New Delhi or Bangkok.

While Gaa’s menu is ever-evolving, it’s rooted in vegetarianism and cooking with lesser-known ingredients, which Arora describes as “underdog, controversial, or polarising”.

“On our current menu, we have our version of durian: tandoori durian‚” says the chef. “Durian can be a very polarising food — people either love it or hate it. We cook it in the tandoor, treat it with some spices, pickles, and condiments, and [serve] bread with it. We always encourage people to try our version, and when they do, they tend to walk away being durian fans. I think that’s the biggest win for us. I enjoy food that is not only tasty, but makes you think a little bit and pushes diners.”

Gaa’s main course is vegetarian, a rarity in the fine-dining world. It was an intentional decision that not only sets the restaurant apart but provides a platform for the culinary team to demonstrate the technicalities and intricacies of Indian cooking. But at its simplest, it’s a move that cements the idea that not all dishes need meat — even mains. It also happens to be the course Arora lists as the best example of her style of cooking. “To say one is difficult,” says the chef. “Each is like a child; you can’t choose a favourite. Even if you do have one, you probably can’t say it out loud. But at this moment, it would be our main course. Since we opened, we have always done a vegetarian main course. I think we are quite unique with this. It showcases what’s possible with Indian techniques and vegetarian cooking.”

The hardships and the rewards of a culinary career are shared by all chefs, no matter where they are located. The idea of work–life balance is often impossible to realise, especially when raising a family is combined with the pressures that come with running a restaurant — let alone one with two Michelin stars. “I wish I had an answer to this, but I don’t,” says Arora on the topic. “Especially being a woman, it is probably the toughest balance. This line of work is not nine to five. Running and owning a restaurant is 25 hours a day.

Throw a baby into the mix and things can get pretty hectic, really fast. People always ask me, ‘How do you encourage more women to get into this field?’ and I always say, ‘I think encouragement is not needed for women’. We know what we want just as much as anyone else. It’s needed from their immediate family. A lot of the time, women can’t do any job to the fullest of our abilities without support. If she doesn’t have the right support from the people around her, it is extremely difficult.”

The role of community plays a critical role in enabling female chefs to continue to excel at work and at home. Arora says she has a strong system around her. “I have a very supportive husband, extremely caring parents, and very thoughtful colleagues. They have made it much easier for me to balance my personal and professional life.”

Last year was momentous in more ways than one for Arora. In between running Gaa and filming MasterChef India, she found the time to bring Gaa to Melbourne for a 10-day pop-up during the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival. The chef and her team prepared an eight-course tasting menu and arrived in the country just two days before the first service. Courses included blue swimmer crab curry and uni chilli toast with homemade pickles and butter served on Gobi paratha. “There's a whole list of herbs we used as substitutes for what we would have used back home,” says Arora, “wattle seed, pepperberry, lemon myrtle, aniseed myrtle, and saltbush.”

The chef says the pop-up was a testament to the fluid and adaptable nature of Indian cuisine. “You can work with ingredients from a local environment or a particular area, and the way you treat them is what gives you the flavour of India,” she says. “I really enjoyed working with Indigenous spices and of course, the seafood was exceptional. Some of the best oysters I’ve ever had were in Australia.”

While there is currently just one Gaa in the world, expansion is “absolutely” on the cards. “I am blessed to have two homes,” says Arora. “I have India as my mother country and Bangkok now. I feel I’m connected to Thailand in a way and I feel at home here. I think I want to keep my bases between India and Thailand. It allows me to continue to explore and create Indian cuisine in ways I really love, and jumping between the two countries is a great way to do that.”

There are many ideas flying around for both India and Thailand, but first, the arrival of Arora’s second child. “My priorities are a little different for the next while,” says the chef. “But once that settles, we have a lot of expansion plans for the future.”