23-04-2020
Gaggan Anand, 42, from Calcutta, India. Since November 2019 he’s at the helm of restaurant Gaggan Anand in Bangkok, Thailand
At this time, as they have said, almost all the best restaurants around the world are closed due to the emergency. Gaggan Anand is a popular Indian chef and entrepreneur, since 2007 at work in Bangkok, Thailand. His first restaurant, Gaggan, two Michelin stars, was voted best restaurant in Asia for 4 years in a row (2015-2018) by Asia’s 50 Best. Because of disagreements with the other partners, in August 2019 he closed that important chapter. And on the 1st of November, last year, he opened another one, called Gaggan Anand, also in Bangkok. Soon after that, the global crisis arrived. How are you, Gaggan? I’m happy. I played the drums, and then I washed my hands for an hour. For the past five days I’ve been drumming and cooking in turns. I’m writing. I feel I’m better. Without this break, my life would be much more toxic. I have learnt to be humbler, to be my true self. I have learnt that I used to be a perfect asshole, with a rock star attitude. Why "toxic"? I’ve realised that in the past 10 years I’ve worked like a dog. Like a dog [he repeats twice], each day. Take that, cook this, get on a plane, prepare here, fry there. Now that I’ve been at home for almost two months, I’m thinking of what I should and should not do. Working a lot has given us fame and money, but it has made us worse people because you’d get angry for nothing, you started hating clients, hating everyone. The emergency helps us reflect first of all on ourselves. In November you opened your new restaurant. How were things going? Very well, it was always fully booked. To book a table you had to wait 2 or 3 months. Then, in February, news of Covid-19 started to spread. When did you close exactly, and when do you think you’ll open again? We closed on the 18th March. In Thailand every day we have 25/30 new cases, with a total of some 2,840 cases [on April the 23rd there is a total of 50 deceased in the country]. We’re still not sure as to when we will open again: I think at the end of the month the measures will be relaxed. Realistically, it will be at the end of May. I will do so when everything will be under control: opening and closing again would be even worse.
The social table at restaurant Gaggan Anand
On the stage of Identità Golose in 2018 (photo Brambilla/Serrani)
On the 6th March Gaggan opened in Bangkok also Ms. Maria & Mr. Singh, serving Indian and Mexican specialties. He had to close two weeks later and now does delivery
A specialty available for delivery from Ms. Maria & Mr. Singh
Gabriele Zanatta’s opinion: on establishments, chefs and trends in Italy and the world
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born in Milan, 1973, freelance journalist, coordinator of Identità Golose World restaurant guidebook since 2007, he is a contributor for several magazines and teaches History of gastronomy and Culinary global trends into universities and institutes. twitter @gabrielezanatt instagram @gabrielezanatt