4 Unique Indian Chefs Abroad

Last week I talked about how some chefs represent India's famous street food, Chaat, on a global level. That made me wonder how the world's perception towards our cuisine has changed over the years and who are the chefs who contributed to this image of us. We need to thank them for the path that they have paved for many aspiring cooks and entrepreneurs.

Image Credit: Vogue India

Everyone has their own story to tell, and these chefs' stories inspired many people and changed the rest of the world's perception of our cuisine, that it is more than just butter chicken and garlic naan. These are some of the chefs who have inspired me personally.

---

1.) Gaggan Anand

Gaggan Anand is an Indian chef who started the world-famous restaurant "Gaggan" in Bangkok in 2010. He was born and brought up in Kolkatta and graduated from IHMCT, Trivandrum. He worked at the prestigious Taj group of hotels before moving on to various other ventures. He was offered to run a kitchen at "Red" in Bangkok. Gaggan was placed #1 in Asia's 50 best restaurants for four consecutive years from 2015-2018.

Chef Gaggan always wanted to take Indian cuisine forward and he started to experiment with molecular gastronomy with famous and classic Indian delicacies. He received a bit of a backlash at first, but soon people realized that he offered something which people had never experienced before with Indian food. Chef Garima Arora worked with Gaggan Anand in the restaurant "Gaggan" and was also featured on Chef's Table. He introduced a side to Indian food which people hadn't seen before, and he wanted to prove that Indian cuisine and Indian chefs are on par with classical French dining.

---

2.) Garima Arora

Garima Arora was born in 1986 in Mumbai to a Punjabi family. She first pursued a career in journalism and then later decided to become a chef by attending the Le Cordon Bleu school in Paris. She worked under famous chefs like Gaggan Anand, Gordon Ramsay, and Rene Redzepi. She opened her restaurant Gaa in 2017 in Bangkok and was awarded its first Michelin Star in 2018.

The first time I saw Chef Garima was in the second season of the famous Netflix chef docu-series "Ugly Delicious" in the episode of Chef Gaggan Anand. At that time, she was working as a Sous chef at Gaggan. Her journey from there to being the first female chef in India to be awarded a Michelin star is truly inspiring. She was also the 2019 Asia's best female chef and one of the judges in Masterchef India (2022).

A fortunate stroke of serendipity led me to find out that Chef Garima's restaurant Gaa was awarded its second Michelin star just two days ago, making her the first Indian female chef ever to receive two Michelin stars! So, shoutout to Chef Garima and her team for making India proud at this moment.

---

3.) Chintan Pandya

Chintan Pandya is the owner and creative visionary behind the famous New York restaurant "Dhamaka" which serves "unapologetic" Indian cuisine. He is one of the co-founders of the hospitality group "Unapologetic Foods" which is behind food establishments such as Adda Indian Canteen, Semma, and of course, Dhamaka which started in February 2021. Chef Pandya states in an interview with Eater magazine how he felt very insulted by the perception of Indian food being limited to six or seven dishes in the global market and decided to change that.

The first time I saw Chintan Pandya was in the video "A Day in the Life of an Indian Masterchef" by content creator and YouTuber, Alvin Zhou. In that video, he covers this down-to-earth chef's daily work and interactions with his staff. Apart from the professional side, he seems like a genuinely nice person and a boss that people would love to have around. Chef Chintan breaks down all the stereotypes of what a typical chef is supposed to be and.....I want to work under him irrespective of the job he offers me.

Chef Chintan, if you are reading this, please.......HIRE ME.

---

4.) Floyd Cardoz

Floyd Cardoz was one of the few pioneer Indian chefs to work in a reputed New York restaurant. Floyd was born and brought up in Mumbai. He was called the "Godfather of Modern Indian cuisine". He also worked as a culinary consultant for the movie "The Hundred-Foot Journey". He started the restaurants Tabla, Paowalla, O Pedro, The Bombay Canteen, and many more. He is also the author of "Flavourwalla", an Indian cookbook targeted towards American home cooks. He was a four-time James Beard award nominee and was also the winner of the reality show Top Chef Masters in its 3rd season, after which he donated all of his winnings to start "The Young Scientist Foundation" in 2011.

Floyd Cardoz is respected widely in the culinary field whether it is in India or abroad. Unfortunately, he passed away in March 2020 due to Covid. He was one of the first chefs to introduce Indian cuisine to New York, and for breaking down the high walls that have been built for many Indian chefs. He was also featured on my favourite Netflix show "Ugly Delicious" in the episode "Don't Call it Curry". I saw Chef Floyd for the first time on the YouTube channel "Babish Culinary Universe", where he along with Andrew Rea (a.k.a. Babish) showed how to make 3 basic Indian flatbreads, and on Basics with Babish's 100th episode, Andrew Rea paid a homage to Chef Floyd by releasing his episode on how to make 3 basic Indian curries.

His legacy continues to live on in his teachings, his restaurants, and his charity work that will support us and continue to inspire us.

---

These are 4 of the chefs who have inspired me in different ways with their knowledge, wisdom, perspectives, backgrounds, and achievements. Our society often teaches us not to dream big or it's better to fly under the radar because it's "safer" that way or it is what we are supposed to do. I offer you 4 chefs today who made their dreams come true, and take what you can from them. The choice is yours!

See you next week!