Gaggan's is Asia's No. 3 & Continent's Best Indian Restaurant; Indian Accent Rises 12 Notches, But At No. 29, Behind Bukhara's No. 27

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

WHEN I last met Gaggan Anand, the high priest of Progressing Indian Dining, at his namesake restaurant in Bangkok last year, he said it was his dream to reach the top of the World's 50 Best Restaurants -- in the footsteps of his icon Ferran Adria, at whose laboratory he had mastered the techniques that make his kitchen special. He was then at No. 66 on the hallowed world list -- the only Indian restaurant to make it to that pantheon of greats -- and I thought he had a long way to go.

The winners pose for the photo-op on the Asia's 50 Best
Restaurants awards night at Capella Hotel in Sentosa,
Singapore, on Monday, February 23.

Not anymore. Gaggan, a Kolkata-born Taj alumnus who made Bangkok his home in 2007, is today at No. 3 of the Asian's Best 50 List, which was unveiled at a glittering awards ceremony at the Capella Hotel in Sentosa, Singapore, on the night of Monday, February 23. He's up by seven notches from his 2013 ranking, next only to the list leader, Australian expat David Thompson's Nahm (also in Bangkok), and the No. 2, Yoshihiro Narisawa's eponymous Tokyo restaurant. That makes Gaggan's, without doubt, Asia's Best Indian restaurant.

That's also where the good news ends. For, India's Best, Bukhara at the ITC Maurya, figures 24 notches below Gaggan's, at No. 27. And Indian Accent, which is the closest to Gaggan's in style and deserving of a far better ranking, is at No. 29, thankfully up by 12 notches from its No. 41 in 2013. I still cannot fathom how you can have Bukhara, the last outpost of predictable dining that hasn't changed as long as Mount Everest has been around, Gaggan's, Indian Accent, Nahm and Narisawa on the same list.

I also wonder why Zorawar Kalra's Masala Library (Mumbai), which is Indian Accent's most serious challenger, Abhijit Saha's Caperberry (Bangalore), Rahul Akerkar's Indigo (Mumbai), the magician Vikramjit Roy's gastronomical laboratory, Pan Asian at the ITC Grand Chola, Chennai, or the brilliant Mickey Bhoite's creative playground, Le Cirque at The Leela Palace, New Delhi, not on the list. The Indian jury seems to be terribly out of sync with the country's changing reality, or it's too five-star-centric, that too stuck between ITC and Taj.

India is represented by six mostly uninspiring restaurants -- Dum Pukht at ITC Maurya, New Delhi (No. 30), which has lost its creative sparkle; Varq at The Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi (No. 32), which has quietly given up any claims to leadership on the Progressive Indian front; Wasabi by Morimoto at Taj Mumbai (No. 36), which is without doubt one of India's finest restaurants; and the has-been Karavalli at the Gateway Hotel on Residency Road, Bangalore  (No. 40).

India, like a patchy middle-order batsman, has been fumbling in the lower end of the list. Bangkok also has six names on the list, but the rankings of its restaurants, starting with Nahm and Gaggan, are far more impressive. Singapore leads the list with eight restaurants, followed by Japan with seven and Hong Kong with six.

Hong Kong's Fook Lam Moon, the unpretentious traditional Chinese restaurant that opened in Wamchai in 1948, has been the most spectacular climber, going up by 29 notches on a list where most restaurants have slipped. Barring Indian Accent, which has seen its ranking climb, the other Indian restaurants on the list have fallen behind -- Bukhara by one, Dumpukht by 13, Varq by two, Wasabi by Morimoto by 16 and Karavalli by five. The Best Indian Restaurant is now at No. 26, compared with No. 17 (Dumpukht) last year. But Indians at least have the consolation of savouring Gaggan's spectacular rise.

India’s First Ritz Carlton Opens with Michelin-Starred Anupam Banerjee as Executive Chef

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

BANGALORE and Bengal are powered by two entirely different mindsets, but our own Silicon Valley’s culinary scene has been dominated for years by a Bengali. Abhijit Saha grew up in Delhi, studied Hotel Management at IHM Pusa and Oenology at the Johnson and Wales University, USA, started out as an industrial trainee at the Taj Palace in his home city, earned his spurs at The Park, where he launched IT.alia in Bangalore with guidance from the famous Antonio Carluccio, and then has had his adopted city eating out of his hand at Caperberry (and subsequently Fava).

Now, there’s another probashi (expat) Bengali chef who’s set to storm Bangalore’s culinary scene as executive chef steering the seven restaurants with which the country’s first Ritz Carlton has opened in the southern city. Anupam Banerjee, who grew up in Ranchi, where his mother is a professor of economics and his father an engineer, was the head chef of Rasoi by Vineet at the Mandarin Oriental Geneva when it became the first and only Indian restaurant in Continental Europe to get a Michelin star and 15 points on the GaultMillau.

Banerjee’s ties with the Michelin-starred chef-restaurateur Vineet Bhatia, the force behind Rasoi, goes back to their days at The Oberoi. When the Mandarin Oriental Geneva chose to open with the Indian restaurant in 2008, Banerjee naturally was the hotel’s first choice for the position of head chef. Banerjee, who turns 40 next years, has spent nine years with the Mandarin Oriental, having worked at the group’s hotel at Hyde Park, a favourite of Indian fat cats, and in Washington, D.C., where he was head chef before he got his Bangalore assignment — or, to use the famous Ritz Carlton expression, was inducted as one of the “Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen”.

An IHM Chennai graduate, Banerjee completed his education at the Oberoi Centre for Learning and Development (OCLD) and worked at La Rochelle, where he honed his French culinary skills, before it made way for threesixty degrees at The Oberoi New Delhi. When he was 25, he won a cooking competition for chefs at The Oberoi and was chosen to represent the hotel at a ‘Taste of Asia’ promotion in Singapore.

Ranchi's Anupam Banerjee (do you see a resemblance here
with M.S. Dhoni?) is the Executive Chef of India's first
Ritz Carlton in Bangalore. Image: Courtesy of Destination
MO, online magazine of the Mandarin Oriental group

It was there that he was spotted by a chef from The Raffles and was inducted into the historic hotel, where he also met his Singapore-Chinese wife Fung. In the two years he spent as stand-in chef at The Raffles, he got to work in all of the hotel’s 18 restaurants, which prepared him for bigger roles at the Mandarin Oriental. Banerjee has also worked with Alain Soliveres at his Michelin two-star restaurant in Hotel Vernet, Paris, had a short stint with Pierre Gagnaire at his Michelin three-star restaurant, also in Paris, and worked alongside with Charlie Trotters, Jeun Fleury and Lea Linster.

A world-travelled chef who has lived and worked in three continents, Banerjee comes with an impressive CV and a heavy load of expectations on his shoulders. The Ritz Carlton Bangalore will have three specialty restaurants — The Market, an all-day dining destination where the main highlight will be the chef’s table where Banerjee will showcase his culinary repertoire; The Lantern, a lantern-shaped Chinese restaurant and bar designed by Super Potato; Riwaz, a Bukhara-type North West Frontier restaurant with a whisky and wine room; and Bang, an open-air rooftop bar offering panoramic views of the city from the 15th floor. That’s an impressive inventory to command, but Banerjee has the experience to slip into his role seamlessly.