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.

Oz Calling: Indian Tourists Rate Australia World's No. 1 Foodie Destination

This story first appeared on Page 23 of Mail Today dated January 23, 2013. To see the original, log on to http://epaper.mailtoday.in/epaperhome.aspx?issue=2312014.
Copyright: Mail Today Newspapers.

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

INDIANS who have been to Australia rank the country's as the world's No. 1 destination for food and wine, above France and Italy. This remarkable finding has been brought to light by a 15-nation  Consumer Demand Research Project conducted by Tourism Australia. The ranking given to Australia's food and wine by Indian travellers is the same as that of their peers, significantly, from France, as those from the USA, UK, China, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Come February, Tourism Australia will
launch a worldwide campaign to woo
foodies with experiences such as dinners
Sound of Silence dinners at Ayers Rock

Overall, Australia ranked No. 2 in the survey and, interestingly, No. 6 among people who had not visited Australia. The No. 1 ranking given by Indians to Australia has come as a pleasant surprise for another reason as well -- India has just edged out Germany to become Australia's 10th largest tourism source market, so the perceptions of its outbound travellers carry the weight of numbers. Even in the social media, India, with five million fans, ranks No. 4 on Tourism Australia's Facebook page and No. 3 in terms of engagement.

These rankings matter to Tourism Australia because the theme of its 2014 promotional campaign, to be launched worldwide in February, is Restaurant Australia. It is being designed to promote the diversity and depth of the country's internationally acclaimed culinary experiences. And the 15-nation survey has revealed that 'good food, wine, local cuisine and produce' are the third most important reason, after 'safety and security' and 'value for money', for outbound travellers to visit a destination. For a country with iconic restaurants such as Tetsuya (Tetsuya Wakuda), Attica (Ben Shewry) and Quay (Peter Gilmore), and expat chefs of the stature of David Thompson (Nahm) and Brett Graham (The Ledbury), this must be heart-warming news.

"The Indian perception of Australia
as the world's leading foodie
destination owes a lot to the
success of MasterChef Australia,"
says Nishant Kashikar, Country
Manager, Tourism Australia

Sharing the survey findings with this writer, Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager-India, Tourism Australia, said the Indian perception of Australia as a foodie destination owes a lot to the success of the reality television series MasterChef Australia in India. "MasterChef Australia, moreover, is all about multi-cultural Australia. That is what Australia is all about," Kashikar said.

To emphasise this point, Kashikar pointed to the success Down Under of the Indian restaurants Aki's and Zaffran, both in Sydney. Vikrant Kapoor of Zaffran, in fact, is a regular on Tourism Australia commercials to promote the destination. Buoyed by the Indian response to Aussie food and wine offerings, Kashikar proposes to promote Australia's exciting culinary trails through some of the country's most scenic spots.

"Could it be walking the produce trail of Kangaroo Island or washing down freshly shucked oysters with a glass of Coles Bay bubbles in Tasmania? Buying a bucket of prawns from the Fremantle fish markets or bar-hopping from rooftop to rooftop above Melbourne's laneways? Sipping a cocktail at Bondi Beach or a craft beer in Cairns, or learning how to make bread from plant seeds on a Top End bush tucker tour?" asks a Restaurant Australia promotional book, laying out just some of the options to make world-travelled tourists shed their been-there-done-that reluctance to go back Down Under for yet another vacation.

"These are the best times for us," says Kashikar. The number of Indian visitors to Australia rose by 11 per cent to touch 170,000 in the year ending Septmber 2013. The leisure segment grew at a higher rate (16 per cent), which Kashikar attributes mainly to the addition of Air-India's Delhi-Melbourne-Sydney daily Dreamliner flight. So did the per-person spend (23 per cent). An Indian tourist, on average, spends 11 nights in Australia and ends up forking out AUD5,000 (Rs 275,000) per visit.

All this makes Outbound India a very important source market for Tourism Australia. Come February, this market will be wooed by Tourism Australia by the many tastes and flavours that define the country's food and wine culture.