Chef Gaggan Anand is coming to India: All we know about his first restaurant in Janpath in partnership with Zorawar Kalra

While details remain under wraps, Kalra says the restaurant is expected to be ready by May or June. “I promise it will be a game-changer.”

Anand had confirmed the move himself earlier this year.

“India, maybe ten or even five years back, was not ready for me,” he said in an interview with India Today. “The way I look at food, the way I present it, I felt fine dining here would be an uphill task. I must give credit to the younger generation of chefs, such as Varun Totlani, Prateek Sadhu, Jason Ebenezer, Hussain Shahzad and Adwait Anantwar, for giving me the confidence that what I do abroad can now be done in India. Their standalone restaurants are pushing the envelope. I want to be part of this journey. I want to come back to learn, adapt and have fun.”

Who is Chef Gaggan Anand?

A trailblazer of progressive Indian cuisine, Gaggan Anand is an instinct-driven chef who describes himself as a “chef, musician, dreamer, romantic fool, rebel, and conductor of chaos in the kitchen.” Born in Kolkata, Anand studied at the Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology in Thiruvananthapuram, before beginning his career as a trainee with the Taj Group. He later went on to work at El Bulli in Spain alongside Ferran Adria, an experience that is said to have instilled in him a deep fascination with molecular gastronomy.

He founded Gaggan in Bangkok in 2010, and the restaurant has since been named Asia’s Best Restaurant five times, radically reshaping how Indian flavours are perceived on the global fine-dining stage.

At Gaggan, the menu changes every three months and aims to take diners on what Anand calls a multi-sensory journey, combining taste with sound, light, touch, smell and surprise. One of the courses famously requires diners to lick their plates.

“This playful culinary performance fuses bold flavours, apocryphal stories and interactive energy,” wrote the Michelin Guide while awarding it one star. “The more you participate, the more vivid and unforgettable the evening becomes.”

As of now, the Bangkok restaurant itself is undergoing another transformation. Anand shared on Instagram earlier this week that a new chapter will begin on May 29. Drawing inspiration from the concept of chakras, the reimagined Gaggan will focus on a sensory, mental and spiritual dining experience. In an earlier post he had revealed that the restaurant will become a 15-seat space, each meal will last 180 minutes, and the use of phones and cameras will not be allowed.

While Anand has staged several pop-ups in India over the years, this marks the first time he will open a permanent restaurant in the country. Whether the Delhi outpost will be an extension of Gaggan or an entirely new expression remains to be seen, and the anticipation is already high.