A different drum
The chief alchemist/impresario at Bangkok’s Gaggan spills (some of) the beans
His passion for his art is infectious. At his eponymous restaurant, he takes time to explain his creations to diners and then natters on about street food, spices and new culinary techniques. The lucky ones who show an interest get a demonstration in the lab-cum-kitchen that is chock-a-block with the tools of his trade, both traditional and nouvelle.
Food writers are even offered a personal guided tour of hidden culinary gems, or favourite street-food stalls at the Or Tor Kor market. It is this onetrack enthusiasm that, in a little over two years, has also propelled his establishment to the No.10 spot in Restaurant magazine’s Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants and to 66th place on a list of the world’s 100 best restaurants.
Setting up shop back in 2010 in a gorgeous, 85-year-old, whitewashed, colonial-style house, Gaggan Anand, a Punjabi who grew up in the city of Kolkata, then took Indian cuisine — with its venerable 5,000-year history and assortment of influences — and promptly turned it on its head. Using the deceptively simple mantra of ‘‘deconstruct and reconstruct’’, he broke down traditional recipes to their most basic elements and then recreated them using new cooking techniques, while retaining the original flavours. It’s the core approach he returned with after a life-changing stint at the elBulli academy where he mastered the secrets of scientific cooking.
It was an experience, says Anand, of his time at what is considered, in equal portions, as the most controversial and most influential restaurant of our times, which changed his attitude to food and the way he wanted to cook.
‘‘The way that I was taught as a chef and way elBulli taught me were completely different. I wanted to get to the bottom of flavours and use these techniques to extract the best flavours from Indian ingredients,’’ says Anand, who first donned a toque in the kitchens of the famed Taj hotel group.
‘‘My version of traditional recipes might have a modern presentation and texture, but the flavours are exactly what you find on the streets of India.’’ I travel to India more often nowadays to taste new dishes and revive old food memories. I make sure that the flavours and the inspiration of a recipe are not lost even if I deconstruct a dish and then reconstruct it. I travel to eat and talk to different chefs I have become friends with. One has so much to learn — from everywhere! It is my Vatican! I am waiting for its foundation to open and hope to be a part of it.
It is Italian — without a doubt! It would be a great honour to cook for His Majesty the King. At the stall of the old lady who makes my favourite som tam; it’s just outside my restaurant on Soi Lang Suan.