Chef Garima Arora on winning two Michelin stars
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Last week, chef Garima Arora made Indian culinary enthusiasts proud. For the second consecutive year, her fine-dining spot, Restaurant Gaa in Bangkok, received two Michelin stars.
It’s a first for a female Indian chef, and the latest in her bag of many achievements. Gaa was awarded the first Michelin star in 2018; she was named Asia’s Best Female Chef by the platform Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2019; and in 2023, her Michelin star count increased to two, which she has retained this year. It is no small feat.
It shows unflinching tenacity and consistency. Arora cooks inventive Indian cuisine in Bangkok using locally available Thai ingredients and heads a team of chefs from different parts of Asia. At 38, she is among the many young expat chefs to become a flag-bearer of modern Indian dining, while securing a spot among the best.
Gaa opened in 2017. Those expecting the usual naan and curry fare, were in for a surprise. Instead, on the menu was Mumbai-style spice-coated corn cooked over coal, daal baati with banana flower, and pork ribs with onion and coriander.
“In fact, it has become our (unintentional) selling point—go to this Indian restaurant and you won’t get curries and naans," she says on the phone from Bangkok. Her food incorporates Indian techniques and plays with ingredients. Explaining her approach, she says, “We don’t recreate recipes, we create recipes from scratch." Consider the main course in her tasting menu, a dish named The Tandoori Story, which is durian prepared in a tandoor—a melding of a Thai ingredient and an Indian cooking technique.
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