(Image source from: BBC.com)
A journalist-turned head chef and a famous Indian-Thai restaurant owner in Bangkok, Garima Arora is once again is making all of us proud as she has been named the best female chief in Asia for her progressive restaurant, GAA.
Arora is as well the first Indian woman to earn a Michelin star last winter. Adding another feather to her success hat, Garima is now elitTM Vodka Asia’s Best Female Chef 2019.
Garima will be presented the award at Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants ceremony on March 26 in Macau.
The 32-year-old founder-chef of GAA, Garima will join an elite group of female chefs that includes Duangporn ‘Bo’ Songvisava from Thailand (2013), Lanshu Chen from Taiwan (2014), Hong Kong’s Vicky Lau (2015), Margarita Forés of the Philippines (2016), May Chow from Hong Kong (2017) and Bongkoch ‘Bee’ Satongun from Thailand (2018).
Garima studied at Mumbai’s Jai Hind College and worked as a pharma journalist for a short time period. She went to Le Cordon Bleu, Paris to revamp her cooking skills. Garima acquired the inspiration to learn and try out new recipes from her parents, subsequently making cooking her profession.
She worked with some of the popular restaurants in the world, from Dubai to Copenhagen, alongside celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsey and Rene Redzepi, before ultimately working as sous chef (French for ‘under-chef’ of the kitchen) for Gaggan Anand’s namesake restaurant in Bangkok. Queso Recipe for Aliens!
In 2016, Anand gave an opportunity to Garima to go to India and open a restaurant. Although that deal fell through, the same investors offered her to open GAA, right opposite to Gaggan in the heart of Bangkok. Garima has only flown high, since then.
Garima’s restaurant kitchen team comprises 18 people from seven nationalities.
Her eatery offers a menu which is just as diverse. Customers can pick between 10 to 14-course tasting menu, which changes quarterly and relies on classic Indian cooking techniques.
-Sowmya Sangam
