Gaggan

A Meal with the Famous Gaggan Anand in Bangkok, Thailand

The famous Chef Gaggan Anand. Indian Einstein. I’ve heard mixed reviews about him over the years - horror and disgust from people who’ve worked for him, accolades and acclaim from people who’ve dined with him. Gaggan is very polarizing, either you love him or you hate him.

His last restaurant opened in 2010, and spent five years in a row at the top of Asia’s best restaurants list, as well as earning two Michelin stars before abruptly closing in 2019. His new restaurant, in a new location, but the same name, opened to headlines and much acclaim a few months later.

Chef Gaggan original studied music before moving into the culinary arts, and trained at El Bulli, one of the original restaurants pioneering molecular gastronomy. The influence from his time there is apparent in everything that his namesake restaurant does. In a show as much as a meal, every sense is invoked, from the lighting, smoke machines, disco balls, aromas, sound and music, touching and playing with courses. The meal is a bit whimsical, a bit fantastical, and a bit like a tumbling down the rabbit hole into Alice in Wonderland.

We were warned to arrive early and the upon arrival we were seated at the bar in an industrial space with a neatly trimmed tree canopy overhead. Not knowing what to expect, we waited for the rest of the guests to arrive.

Once all 16 guests had arrived, the curtain behind the reception was pulled back, and we were escorted into the darkened dining area with loud music blasting. Looking a bit like a mix between a high intensity gym class and a club, we were all seated around the counter facing the open show kitchen with all the mise-en-place prepared.

Once we were all seated, Fabio, the head chef, prepared us for the experience, and the key point he raised:

Don’t take anything here seriously. Half the time we’re kidding, so keep your sense of humour and awe active.

At each place was a cute clay sculpture. Each person’s was different, representing a different emotion. Mine represented hope. I was definitely hoping for a great meal!

The menu for the night, which was handed out at the end of the meal. Even so, it was only visible under ultraviolet light. I’ve never had a 22 course menu before, but we were told that there would be 11 appetizers, 5 desserts, 6 mains and they would all be intermixed.

The first course, and a signature for Gaggan, the “Yoghurt That Explodes”, served on what seemed to be a crisp leaf of dried Japanese nori. We were told to put the entire thing in our mouth in one bite. A giant mouthful of tangy yoghurt, but also popping and crackling. The explosion was the rock candy inside the yoghurt.

The second course was papadums. Fabio mentioned that papadums are usually heavy and served with a variety of chutneys. Gaggan’s version was a light “Hibiscus Polka Dotted Papadum” with a mango salsa inside, served on an embroidery hoop.

Fabio then went on to tell us a long winded story about a special cookie recipe, asking the audience for the ingredients of cookies. We responded with the usual - flour, butter, sugar, chocolate chips but also other intangibles like love. Fabio then told us that none of those ingredients were in these special cookies. In fact, these were “loveless cookies” made with broccoli as the only ingredient. Concentrated broccoli flavour with alternating textures of crispy wafers of freeze dried broccoli, filled with a broccoli and tarragon mousse, the dish being named “I Hate Broccoli”. An interesting dish.

Dish four was a delicate dish made from thinly shaved raw mushrooms on a mushroom crisp cracker made from mushroom starch. Dots of pork rind jelly and a single thyme leaf. Crispy, earthy, a really well put together dish.

The fifth course came with a long story about how Gaggan dislikes how easily the word “sustainability” is thrown around. There was a long-winded story about how they locally sourced the only livestock in a 500 meter radius of the restaurant, which was street rat, and served their brains with an onion and beetroot chutney. In reality, I think this was white asparagus and truffle in a foie gras mousse shaped into the shape of a brain, titled “G.O.A.T. has a brain”. Extremely rich, but a bit of a mouthful.

Next, course six was called a “thing that grows above the ground”, an asparagus sunflower with asparagus ice cream, wasabi and lime jelly. After finishing the thing that grows above ground, we were told to show the internal symbol of love, the outstretched middle finger, and dig into the “dirt” for the course seven, an underground freeze dried beetroot puff filled with ketchup and gorgonzola cheese.

Course eight, and the first dessert was then served on a piece of driftwood - a frozen sweet raw prawn mousse within a dragon fruit and wasabi cracker shaped like a Shizo leaf.

The next dish was a classic Rajasthani dessert, fried milk topped with shaved monkfish liver and yuzu jelly. Inside was some toasted red miso ice cream and sake kasu ice cream, made from the leftover rice from sake brewing. Gaggan mentioned it was one of most difficult courses to execute on the menu. Crispy on the outside, cold on the inside, umami and creamy.

One of my favourite dishes of the night came next, based on the stroopwafel. Two coffee wafers filled with Irish whisky toffee, coffee marshmallow and a layer of foie gras, infused with coffee. Unlike the normal goopy and caramel-y strop waffles, these waffles were light and crisp and the entire sandwich was just bursting with coffee aroma and flavour.

Halfway through the meal, a cold brewed mulled tomato soup, with black pepper. Cold brewed though a traditional ice drip, this tasted a bit like a bloody mary. The story of sustainability continued with a focus on nose to tail dining and how this was a creative use for the rat blood.

The final installment of the rat saga, the “beyond rat”, a satay made from tender bamboo shoots grilled over charcoal, with tamarind and mango, and topped with turmeric oil.

Dish 13 was called “This is not a taco”. It may look like a taco, and taste like a taco, but it’s definitely not a taco. It’s a buckwheat roti surrounding a tender piece of turbot, topped with a pungent fennel sauce and fennel salad.

Moving into dumplings, we had a steamed fenugreek samosa dumpling wrapped with a black garlic skin wrapper, served in a sour cream sauce. The affectionately called it “Momo Momo” or “mmmm” and blasted real slim shady while serving the dish.

What appeared to be a lump of charcoal, but in reality a crispy Korean deep fried dumpling, filled with crab, kimchi, a heck of a lot of spice. The wrapper blackened using squid ink.

Rounding off into dish 15, an eggplant and its burnt skin, a Chang Mai eggplant in a turnip and squid ink sauce. They called this, “the root of all evil”.

Suddenly the light dimmed for the preparation of the next dish, crab cooked in banana leaf, smoked with a lit banana leaf. Not a huge hit, a bit slimier than I would’ve liked.

Dish 18 involved some audience participation. In “cookoff salad wars”, the audience was split into halves and each half had to vote for a poor victim on the other half, who had to prepare the next dish. We ended up nominating two halves of a couple who were split down the middle into two teams. Fortunately, our half of the couple did the cooking for the past 20 years, so we ended up with a well seasoned, if a little spicy, salad. While the audience members were preparing the salad, Gaggan told us the story of how he got one of his staff members to smuggle in the sesame oil from North Korea, and mixed it with pork jowl, pomelo, peanut, fish sauce, and a bit of bird eye chili to form the salad.

This brought us to the final stage of the meal - Curry-aoke. Every dish would be prepared while the staff and audience were singing along. Gaggan told us the story of how he was planning to start a new restaurant in London, but instead of British curry, he wanted to feature an Indian curry, something you could eat while piss drunk.

His take on a butter chicken was served with a Pao de Quieijo, a bouncy fried South American cheese bread puff made from tapioca starch.

Dish 20 was a bit lighter. Aged basmati rice cooked with spinach with a fillet of Japanese Sea Bream, topped with a Cantonese chili sauce. Much milder than his other flavour bombs, this dish brought us back to more of an East Asia palate, reminding me of cuisine closer to Hong Kong or Japan with a much lighter preparation, highlighting the freshness of the fish.

Second to last, a slice of Japanese Mikan. Similar to a blood orange, but extremely sweet with juice bursting out with every bite. There are only three weeks a year where it is in the height of season and unlike a regular orange, the peel is very thin, so it is usually not removed, but eaten with the rest of the orange. On top of the Mikan was a liquid nitrogen frozen kulfi, a dense, rich Indian ice cream.

Finally, the last course was a lickable dessert in the shape of a rose. Other than the novelty of licking the dessert off the plate, I didn’t recognize the flavours. Neat, but not my cup of tea.

Overall, this was probably my best meal in Bangkok. Some really big hits - like the mushroom paper cut and coffee stroopwafel, and consistently solid across most of the 22 dishes. Without the experience - the stories, the jokes, the curry-aoke, it would’ve been a solid, but not particularly memorable meal. With the showmanship, this was probably one of my best meals this year. I’m definitely returning next time I’m in Bangkok.

Total damage: 33k THB/2 people.