Behind every chef

For Chef Garima Arora, her father is magician, mentor, and master taster

- ANJULY MATHAI

There are many people who have turned Garima Arora, who recently won the second Michelin for her restaurant Gaa in Bangkok, into the chef she is today. First, there is her grandmother. Arora took her toddler steps in cooking with a milk cake, made with semolina in the pressure cooker, that her grandmother taught her. The real pleasure was not the end but the means—cooking with her grandmother.

Her grandmother used to make white butter, which Arora used to eat with 'gobi ka paratha' or 'methi ka paratha'. Today, it is a signature at her restaurant. In fact, many of her early food memories are plated and served at Gaa. “We used to make a dish called kanjak with halwa, chane, and poori during Navratri,” she says. “That was something I used to look forward to all year. That combination of savoury and sweet eaten together has shaped my palate and the way I cook.”