God knows, many people thought it was over, even though it had begun so well.

In 2015, just five years after he opened Gaggan, serving an original take on Indian food, the restaurant hit #1 on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list. With Indian cuisine still not taken seriously by the international food community at that point, his ranking caused a stir.

People tried to explain it away. “Oh, it’s not really Indian food,” they said. Or, “he’s just riding the molecular gastronomy wave.”

Or even: “It’s just a fluke.”

The doubters were silenced when Gaggan continued to hold the #1 slot for three more years. No restaurant had remained at the peak for four.

He broke his own record this week.

But before all that, just as suddenly as everything had gone right, it all went wrong.

Gaggan fell out messily with his partners, in 2019. The original Gaggan closed. Convinced he had to start over, the chef opened a new establishment, Gaggan Anand, also in Bangkok. The entire kitchen team moved with him.

Here, he offered a further refinement of the experience that had made him famous. Things were going well.

Then, just as he was enjoying his second coming, the pandemic broke out. Restaurants closed. The world shuttered. Amid it all, his marriage broke up acrimoniously. He sued his wife Pui for defamation. Access to his beloved daughter Tara became an issue.

As the lockdowns dragged on for longer than anyone had anticipated, he continued to pay rent on a premium location and the debts began to accumulate.

He cast about for other ventures. A New York restaurant project came close to fruition, but then fell through. A residency at Singapore’s Mandala Club was wildly successful, but ended bitterly.

By the time the lockdowns had ended and he reopened his restaurant, Gaggan found himself fighting many fires. Fortunately, he was successful. His domestic litigation ended with him getting renewed access to his daughter. His staff came back to work, happy to cook again. The restaurant was full once more.

***

Within the food community, he was still seen by some as a chef whose glorious future was now behind him. Yesterday’s man.

It’s never easy to fight the battle of perception, and Gaggan struggled.

He abandoned some of his legendary volatility to take a more focused approach to his life (it helped that he had found love again, with the Thai model and singer Mint Pattarasaya). He cooked at restaurants around the world, including at a month-long residency in Delhi. And when Louis Vuitton asked him to open a restaurant at their glamorous new Bangkok store, he grabbed the opportunity.

Against the odds, it has all worked out. He is back on top. When they called out his name in Seoul, Gaggan was in tears, unusual for a man who doesn’t show vulnerability in public.

“Initially I leaned towards self-doubt and believed that my era was over,” he said to me. “I wasn’t trendy any longer. Most chefs in their late 40s will think about retiring. I went in the opposite direction. I worked harder, made sure we were not like any other restaurant, and I turned negativity into energy to make sure I created a better version of myself and my work.”

***

He is right about Gaggan Anand not being like any other restaurant in the world.

It is part theatre and part food experience. Guests sit together at a horseshoe-shaped table and are taken through each course by chefs who explain the food, play (usually rock) music that suits the mood, and tell jokes and stories about the dishes.

All food fads are relentlessly mocked. One favourite subject is the trendy but largely nonsensical farm-to-table fad, which becomes part of an extended gag about using local wildlife in the kitchen. (In Bangkok, they joke, that would be rats.)

When Gaggan does the service himself he turns into a cross between a savant and a Mick Jagger-like performer. By the end of the evening the meal has become a party.

It’s an unusual approach, but it has worked for Gaggan, and it has worked for India and Indian cuisine.

In fact, this year, aside from this Kolkata-born chef’s triumph, the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list does not hold a lot of good news. Only two Indian restaurants made it to the list: Masque, at #19; and Indian Accent, which fell to #46. Avartana dropped out completely, despite winning every award at home.

In contrast, Gaggan Anand had the top slot and Gaggan at Louis Vuitton came in at #31. (A third Gaggan restaurant, Ms Maria & Mr Singh, was on the less-prestigious 51-100 section of the list.)

I asked Gaggan what Indian restaurants needed to do to up their game.

“Young Indian chefs need to think again, reimagine the future using the past, and make the most of our country’s diversity and food culture,” he says. “India is a very strong food nation. Let’s not waste time trying to ferment, foam and forage. Let’s perfect and reinvent our grandma’s recipes with modern Indian cooking techniques.”

It has worked for Gaggan once. And, in his second act, it’s working again.

(vrsanghvi7@gmail.com)