Bangkok may be known as the street food capital of the world, but it's the high-end restaurants that are gaining popularity in the last few years.
Home to Asia's No.1 restaurant, Gaggan, according to Asia's 50 Best Restaurant 2025 list, Bangkok has also been home to chef Gaggan Anand for 18 years. Having first worked at the now-defunct Red restaurant in Sukhumvit, the maverick chef went on to open his namesake in 2010, a restaurant which kept him in the top spot for four consecutive years.
At the former restaurant in Langsuan, Anand became known for his innovative approach to Indian cuisine and for his bold no-nonsense take on the culinary world. Anand's current restaurant, Gaggan, the new incarnation of Gaggan Anand, opened in 2019 on Sukhumvit 31 and the format of how he does business changed.
Chef Gaggan Anand.
"The biggest thing is that we are the same team. With the recent award, our confidence is at a different level. However, the award will have more of an impact on diners because they will come with much bigger expectations. But we are ready. We don't pretend to be anything that we are not. This isn't the first time we are on the top [it's his fifth time being No.1], but this time, we are better prepared," says the chef.
"We are more grounded and focused. The first thing we did after winning the award in Seoul [on March 24] is to be at dinner service the next day. After being No.1, I had a choice to take a holiday and relax. Instead, it made me happy, so I had to come back, not to show my face but to be in service. And since the award, I haven't missed a single service. That's how we roll."
The new iteration of Gaggan is a chef's table with a format that describes the chef as "conductor of a food opera". "I look at it as a music album or theatre. The menu isn't just a menu, it's like a season. In November each year, I start writing ideas and in December I start discussions with my core team and that forms the initial idea. After that, I start writing down things in more detail. Once it gets to this stage, it's like a big art book where all our ideas are put down.
"From there, I go to second draft and the third. After that, I start to draw out each dish, what it will look like, the colour and what ingredients are to be used. So November and December are like a sabbatical for me. Though I am physically at the restaurant, my head is in this art book. I try to do things page-by-page, act-by-act, and finally achieve a last draft, which is given to my head chef Fábio Costa for technique -- 'I want this ingredient, I want this recipe and this technique'.
Dishes at Gaggan. (Photos courtesy of Gaggan)
"This process requires one and a half months of R&D, which is January and February. In March, we have two trial runs where the team experiences everything. The entire menu takes about four months from start to finish."
The menu is a five-act performance. The first act is India, which comprises five dishes. The second is Japan, which includes five Japanese-influenced dishes -- "because Japan is my second home". "I always say, my heart is Indian, but my art is Japanese. Then we go to Thailand, where my soul has been for 18 years. So we split it 5-5-5 and this all happens in one hour and 20 minutes.
"We do five dishes, which includes singing, dancing and communal sharing. The first 15 dishes are impactful in texture and technique and not many restaurants in the world attempt them, save for Disfrutar, El Celler de Can Roca or Mugaritz. Now, these technical dishes have become communal and we use five basic techniques that define Asia: steaming, grilling, frying, baking and boiling. These are simple techniques because I'm 47 and this is what I like to eat after 27 years of cooking. Instead of doing five desserts at the end, I do two desserts, small ones, at the end the entire 25-course menu. The other three desserts are at the end of each act. This is so you don't have a sugar high and you don't get bored.
"It's a very different experience in every possible way. And that idea came from my sommelier, Vladimir Kojic. So, we do 18 dishes in one hour, 20 minutes and then in the next one hour, we do the last seven dishes."
Time is very important if you're a diner at Gaggan and this is because "the meal isn't too long or too short". "Sometimes meals can be five hours and if it's too short, I can't show my creativity. So the idea is to make you perfectly full but not too full and not too hungry and at the same time, give you the perfect experience. It's like a concert. If your concert is four hours, you'd be bored. If your concert is one hour 20 minutes, you'll say you're ripped off. This is why everything is perfectly timed," explains Anand.
Gaggan seats 14 diners around an open kitchen or "the stage". The number of seats is what the interior designer thought was perfect at the time. "I wish it was 15 because we would have had 8% more revenue for the year. It's just a good dynamic; if you have less, the energy is not there. If you have more seats and if the energy isn't good, it would be really bad. Fourteen is a safe number for us," says the chef.
While making a reservation, diners are asked their nationalities, which is not to single anyone out, but more for the seating arrangements. "We try to mix Asians, Europeans, Americans… we try to bring cross-culture to the table. For me, the menu is like the last supper. All people of different colour, nationality and race sitting together. That is my vision.
"We also don't allow private bookings or bookings of all 14 seats. It may be good for business but it is not good for me. I'm not a private chef. The idea is to share with the community."
The philosophy is that Anand wants to bring equality to one table. "Fine dining has become very pretentious. I like luxury, but it made me feel obliged to those who save up to eat one meal. They also deserve what I can do for them. It's not just about those who can afford my restaurant. I can double the price and I'll only get the people who I don't want in my restaurant.
"I think that's where I balance it with Gaggan at Louis Vuitton. It's for people who want their privacy, who want their families to come, that want a private table and the luxury of fine dining. It also also reflects what Gaggan does. You have the same elements of Gaggan, but a completely different service and environment. It's like yin and yang," Anand states emphatically.
"Gaggan has established itself as a food opera and that is very important. It's an analogue service. We live in a digital world and phones are really important. But when I started cooking, I used to hold a knife. I still use my hands to season dishes, I am not using a computer to tell me how much salt a dish needs, right?
"What has happened in last 25 years of me being a chef and 27 years of cooking, ingredients have changed and guests have changed. I have to adapt to them. So I try to conduct a service where mobile phones don't become a distraction.
"I was at a Green Day concert and Billy said 'Hey, can you all not take videos for one song and just sing?'. And that's exactly my feeling, like, can we not take photos or videos of one dish. Can the focus just be on the dish? That is the pinnacle of my service, where I can take you away and try to not show you my way, but give you a different experience.
"These days, you enter a restaurant and you're immediately shown the ingredients. The surprise is already ruined. The stories are all about who the farmer is; the farm-to-table concept that people are pushing. They even tell you how sustainable they've become. They try to show you that in concrete jungles like Bangkok, sustainability is possible where our tap waters are not drinkable. So what sustainability we are talking about?!
"All this pain that I see having lived in Bangkok as a chef and being privy to the ever changing fine dining landscape, I ask what if I try to be different?. What if I not try to do what other people are doing, not try to win another award but just do things that make me happy.
"I lost everything during Covid and started afresh. So if I'm starting fresh, why not start with what I want to do and not what the investor wants to do. That makes the right formula.
"Now, my food is like me -- straight to the point minimalism. We don't use edible flowers, have zero garnish. That's what I learned from Japan. It is simple and highly technical. In the three minutes of every dish that you eat, we will give you a surprise and it should taste good."
In the next year or so, Anand will change the way his building on Sukhumvit 31 looks. "I want to create an R&D space of epic proportions and one that is visible from the street."
He is still writing his book, which he announced prior to Covid. "I want to write it myself and I don't want to make it expensive. It's a four-part book, the first being 'For', which are recipes I cook for the people I love. Part two would be 'Unlawful', unlawful things that I go with, like licking a plate or all the creativity, which is not just recipes, but creativity in terms of ideas, unlawfully doing things, which also shows how rebellious I am as a person. 'Curry' is another part, so from leaf traceability and history, what I think about curry. The last will be 'Knowledge', proper knowledge, everything technical."
Anand is now the only chef in the world that has three restaurants on the Asia's 50 Best Restaurant list. Gaggan at Louis Vuitton entered the list this year at No.31 and Ms Maria And Mr Singh is No.99. His latest endeavour is Esan, "a fantasy of northeastern Thai cuisine and a Japanese izakaya". "I'm joining hands with Chalee Kader for this," says Anand.
"In two or three years, Gaggan shall reach its peak. I will never close Gaggan as a brand since I now own it. We are re-establishing ourselves, in the way we want. Maybe in 2027, we will re-evolve. In my 30-40s I did the old Gaggan, in my 40-50s, I'm doing this and after 50, I will do another part of Gaggan."
