When a chef earns not one but two Michelin stars, people take notice. Yet for Chef Garima Arora, the accolades are only part of the story. At her Bangkok restaurant Gaa, and her new Mumbai venture Banng, she is changing what fine dining can mean. It isn't about rare ingredients but a thoughtful narrative on a plate, where every dish balances elegance with a hint of surprise, leaving diners thinking long after the last bite.
Banng has sparked conversation for its bold take on Thai cuisine, but Chef is quick to clarify. “It is not fusion,” she says firmly. “Fusion, to me, is confusion, where you cannot tell where one cuisine ends and the other begins. When you mix cuisines, it should make you smile, nod, and think, ‘Ah, I see what you did there.’ Otherwise, it misses the point,” she adds.
Her journey to the kitchen is as unconventional as her approach to food. She started studying journalism, but a teenage trip to Singapore changed everything. “I was 17 or 18. We were exploring new cuisines, and when I came back, I could not stop craving that food. I started cooking it for friends and realised I loved it more than anything else. That one trip altered my path completely.”
Family also shaped her instincts. Unlike many chefs who credit their mothers or grandmothers, Chef Garima learned from her father and maternal grandfather. Watching them experiment with recipes from their travels, she learned to cook with instinct, joy, and imagination.
Her culinary signature often centres on acidity. “Even in desserts, acidity is underplayed,” she explains. “It is key to creating balance and building flavour. It makes you want to eat more. It is my go-to flavour profile.” This subtlety threads through both Gaa and Banng, giving even the boldest dishes a clear, memorable sharpness.
Improvisation has defined much of her work. Take Banng’s grilled tomato dish on the vegetarian menu. With little precedent for vegetarian Thai cuisine, Arora created something entirely her own based on intuition, pairing charred tomatoes with Tom Yum sauce and candied tamarind. The dish is deceptively simple but lingers in the memory long after the meal ends. Achieving two Michelin stars with moments like this is deeply rewarding, yet recognition has not changed her focus.
“Michelin stars bring validation and visibility,” she notes, “but my goal is to surprise and delight. I feel that tasting menus can often feel predictable. I want every guest to walk away with something memorable, through flavour, texture, unusual combinations, or reimagined techniques. I want them to feel that first-time excitement every time they dine with us.”
Looking ahead, Chef Garima sees fine dining evolving beyond rare ingredients. Truffles are now in supermarkets, caviar is commonplace, and foie gras has lost its former mystique. “Fine dining today is about the experience,” she says. “Ingredients alone no longer define it.” For her, curating meaningful, surprising experiences is the ultimate challenge, and the one she relishes most.
From Bangkok to Mumbai, Chef Garima Arora proves that true luxury in dining lies in thought, balance, and the small surprises that delight the senses. Her dishes go beyond food. They are carefully crafted stories, full of imagination, skill, and heart.