The first time I ate Gaggan Anand’s food was back in 2015. He was roped in by The Times of India group to do an exclusive multi-city special edition pop-up with limited seats. Each seat, at that time, had a price tag of Rs.25,000, a sum so incredulous in 2014’s India that it seemed like they would have an empty dining room when the day came. 

It was a full house. With a waitlist as long as a mile. Such was the magnetism of the enigma called Gaggan Anand. People paid what was more than my rent at that time for a three-bedroom landed house in Delhi for an 18-course meal by Gaggan Anand. 

I was the Food Editor at NDTV at that time. And by extension, had experienced the culinary creations of most of the renowned chefs in India at that time. Yet, Gaggan managed to blow my mind away. It was the first time that I saw theatrics embedded in the crafting of the dish, not just in its presentation. A bird’s nest, placed a few tables away, had us walk to it and retrieve one of our courses, shaped like an egg on a nest. Another, called ‘charcoal’ has been replicated by many modern Indian restaurants since, but we all know who does it best. 

Since then, I have followed Gaggan’s story closely and interviewed him multiple times. Who was this chef, my editor’s mind mused, who broke all tradition, played loud rock music, was more rebel than an authoritarian figure in a kitchen, and yet, managed to do what no one from Asia had done before – break into the lists of the top restaurants in the world. Gaggan was voted Asia’s No.1 Restaurant 3 years in a row, a feat never achieved before or since. 

In 2018, I did a story called the ‘10-Year Itch’ about top chefs like Gaggan and Andre Chiang who had preemptively announced the closure of their restaurants on their 10th anniversary. The logic was simple, though infinitely brave – it was time to do something new. To reinvent. If you kept doing the same thing again and again, where was the joy in that? Andre packed up and left Singapore for his homeland Taiwan, where he started training young chefs and giving them opportunities they couldn’t have dreamt of. Gaggan’s story unfolded differently. Mere months before his namesake restaurant was to close its door, Gaggan and his business partners had a falling out. It was a tough time for all concerned, and as a result, refusing to be blackmailed or backed into a corner, Gaggan walked out of the restaurant named after him. 

What followed was even more spectacular. The same day, 150 crew members from the restaurant walked out with Gaggan, speaking volumes about his leadership and the pure reverence that they held in their heart. Like a stack of cards, things tumbled pretty fast, and the restaurant shut shop within a few weeks. 

From the ashes, Gaggan rose like a phoenix. He announced the launch of a small 14-seater restaurant, again named after him, this time run on his terms. The industry couldn’t have been more excited. And then Covid hit. Everything shut down. And after the travel industry, the F&B industry was hit the worst. In a surprising move, Gaggan did not rest on his laurels or nurse his ego. He started cooking from home. He made hearty curries and sent them to people’s houses for them to enjoy Gaggan Anand’s food as they isolated in their little cocoons. I don’t remember seeing any chef of that caliber doing this. It wasn’t a matter of how many stars he had (two) or how many times he had been voted the #1 Indian chef in the world, Gaggan Anand put his head down, wore his heart on his sleeve and did the one thing he loved most – cook. 

It is this very passion that saw his meteoric rise once again, after the world recovered and opened up. Slowly inching up the scoreboard, Gaggan was named Asia’s #1 Restaurant once again in the glittering Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants ceremony held in Seoul in March 2025. And the rebel, usually seen dancing, singing and cooking up a storm, was humbled and touched such that he couldn’t hold back his tears as he made his way to the stage, surrounded by his team, of course.

The rebirth of Gaggan Anand is an important story to know and to tell. In a world where it’s so easy to give in to complacency and so tough to reinvent yourself, it is a story that talks of resilience. About fighting all odds. Never giving up. And believing in yourself, even when nobody else would. 

Love him, or hate him, the world’s most celebrated chef from Asia, Gaggan Anand earned his spot on that podium. In a way that few others could.