Gaggan Anand

Gaggan Anand is an Indian chef who, more than any cook of his generation, has redefined what contemporary Indian cuisine can be at the highest level. Born and raised in Kolkata in a family of modest means, he learned to cook from his mother and from the street food of West Bengal before moving abroad to work — first in catering on cruise ships, then through a series of hotel kitchens in Bangkok where he eventually settled.

His breakthrough came after a stage at Ferran Adrià's elBulli in 2010, which crystallised an idea that had been forming for years: that Indian cuisine, with its complex spice arrangements and its layered cooking techniques, was ideally suited to the modernist toolkit but had been almost entirely absent from the global avant-garde conversation. He opened Gaggan in Bangkok in 2010 and over the next decade developed a 25-course tasting menu presented as a series of emojis — eat the yoghurt explosion with your hands, lick the chutney off the plate, swallow the spherified curry whole.

Gaggan was named the best restaurant in Asia by Asia's 50 Best Restaurants for four consecutive years (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018) — the only restaurant ever to achieve that streak. He closed the original Gaggan in 2019 and reopened in a new location as Gaggan Anand, where he continues the emoji menu format. He is also a vocal advocate for chefs of Indian origin in the international fine-dining scene.