Chef Gaggan Anand to open a restaurant in India in 2026

Chef Gaggan Anand’s restaurant Gaggan remains a fixture in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ top ten list. He is also number one restaurant in Asia’s 50 Best. The man behind this Michelin star restaurant is one of the most acclaimed Indian chefs in the world. He’s won accolades that were once seen as limited to Japanese or French restaurants. In an exclusive chat with India Today Spice, the maverick chef entrepreneur reveals 2026 is a big year ahead for him where he will renovate and reopen a whole new Gaggan experience in Bangkok… And… open a restaurant in India!

We hear, 20 years after you left India, you are coming back to open a restaurant here. Is this true?

Yes, I am opening a restaurant in 2026 in India. The year 2026 is actually important for me as I’m doing a few new things. I’m opening in India, I’m renovating my restaurant in Bangkok and coming up with a whole new experience and also, not allowing any phone photography in the restaurant. Diners won’t be allowed to click photos.

That’s a lot happening in one year! Let’s discuss each. First, the most exciting news you’ve shared. What brings you back and gives you confidence to open in India? As you’ve yourself said earlier India is not ready for Gaggan.

India, maybe 10 years or five years back, was not ready for me. From the way I look at food, the way I present food, I felt fine dining restaurant was an uphill task in India. I must give credit to young generation of chefs, Varun, Prateek, Johnson, Hussain and Adwait, as they gave me confidence that I can do, all that I do abroad, now in India. These five chefs and their restaurants that are not in a hotel are pushing the envelope. I want to be a part if this journey. I want to come back to learn, adapt and have fun.

What’s changed? What gives you the confidence?

I felt it is high time. I would love to cook Indian food with Indian ingredients. I did a few pop ups across the country to understand India and connect to the roots of my country and culture. It is the right time for me to come and establish Gaggan and do what Gaggan does.

Recently, I’ve had meals at Papas and Masque, and I think they are very luxurious restaurants because they take you on experiential dining. Luxury in India is changing a lot. People are doing caviar. People are doing truffles, which was five years back, impossible to get. People are adapting to the taste of luxury. We are understanding wines better. We are understanding alcohol spirits better. We are bringing back our rich culture in a modern way. People are ready to spend money in India, I repeat, in India, not in Dubai, not in London, not in New York. In India, people are ready to spend that much money. And I think, in current economic environment where even a three Michelin star and even the best restaurants in the world are not full, India is the only big market of domestic consumption in fine dining. It is a huge market. Every restaurant is doing well. I think India is the new China. 15 years back, everyone was gaga over China. I'm telling you, in 20 years, when our people will go to Paris and shop luxury brands, you will have a Tamil speaking person in a Louis Vuitton store. Don't be surprised.

20 years ago when you left India to now, Indian appetite for luxury has changed for sure. That must be reassuring when you planned to open here?

20 years back when I came to Thailand, the way world looked at India to now, where many places live on Indians. You have to understand that India is really going forward and competing. It is the top five economies in the world. It is a country that is hungry to live luxury, to wear luxury, to eat luxury, to travel luxury. And this is what gives you confidence that now you can come back.

I think, If I don't come back now, I'll regret. I will regret missing this flight, this new India. I want to be part of this success. I want to enjoy this part.

Tell us more about the New Gaggan that you’re coming up with in Bangkok?

In 2026 the biggest thing that is happening is we are making a new Gagan. All these 15 years of restaurant Gaggan, 20 years of leaving India, all these things will shape how I am going to create the new Gaggan. In April or May, we are shutting the Gaggan restaurant for one month to bring out the best of us. And then, I think in 2028 will be the last year of Gaggan. Of what Gaggan is today. I'll be 50 years old, and I think that is my end of Gaggan as fine dining in 2028. And then I don't know, what can Gaggan be. It can be a curry house, a steak house, a noodle bar, I don't know.

What is your understanding of luxury? Specially in fine dining?

Today, fine dining is not about innovation. We live in a generation where everything is on our Instagram. There are restaurants, I'm telling you, whose food is based on that app! There are restaurants and chefs, the only thing they do is, what is the other restaurant doing. And it is a circle. It is a vicious circle. So there's no innovation happening. Fermentation, foraging, minimal coking, or modern day gastronomy, from El Bulli to Noma, people are merely trying to do everything that everybody does. For me, it is the end of innovation. Luxury is not about innovation anymore. Luxury is about experience. Experience is what we miss. And I always believe that Gaggan brings experience. When I did a restaurant with Louis Vuitton, it was not about having a luxury of Louis Vuitton. We brought luxury to food. My personal journey is towards luxury of experience.

You said opening a restaurant with Louis Vuitton was like putting a flag on top of Mt Everest. Explain that?

In 2012, I did a golgappa and made it look like a spaceship and gave it to a white person who would never try golgappa on the streets. In 14 years since, there’s a golgappa on every Michelin restaurant. When I opened at Louis Vuitton, it was like putting a flag on Mt Everest. I wanted to be the first to climb and now there will be many who will follow. Mine was that first daring step. That I, an Indian chef, dared to do a restaurant with a French luxury brand. I did it. My journey is not about status. It is about achieving something that is unheard or unimaginable or unexpected. I mean, before I did it, nobody expected me to do that, right? So I think I did something like putting flag atop Mt Everest.

And let’s talk about the new radical measure you’re going to introduce. No photos allowed?

I am from an era, where I grew up without phones. We are in an era where we can't live without phones. We never live the moment. We always live to capture a moment and showing off where we are. So I want people to live the moment. I will get a lot of flak for this, but I want to be one of the restaurants in the world, who has already done so many radical things, from emoji menus to licking the plate, to putting a food on a middle finger, to everything that I've done as a rebel. And I want to do it again. To have a restaurant of our stature, only restaurant in the world where we won't allow phone photography. Living the moment is a very big luxury. And that's exactly what I want to tell you. You asked what is luxury? I want to go back around and tell people what I think about luxury.

It is radical I know but I will do a job of being a bouncer in my own restaurant. I think when we do it, we'll do it very smartly. There are museums. There is no photo allowed. You go to a Patek Phillips store, you can't take a photo of the watch. So why not us?

And what is your take on dining scene or luxury consumption in general?

It is sad. It is dependent on awards and influencers. The other problem is that every rich person wants to open their own restaurant. Earlier, restaurants lived on high spending people. Now high spending people, everybody you and I know, own a restaurant. 15 to 20 years back, people were enjoying a restaurant. Now, it has gone to the situation in the world that everybody wants to own a restaurant. All you hear is ‘I own this restaurant. I invested in this restaurant. This is my chef.’ If a chef wins a Michelin star, the owner gets a tattoo, we are living in a joke like this. This is the sad part.

It is too much of everything, and because of too much of everything, too much competition, so only very few survive.

How do you make a mark when there’s so much competition?

I run a 14 seater restaurant. I win best of best awards. All happens very fast. But what if nothing if this would have happened? I would survive with my 14 seats. If I had 40 seats, I would be always biting my nails. I personally think opening big restaurants are a joke. You can't run big restaurants in luxury anymore. I think 30 seats max, that's it.

What about consumer behaviour? How do you view that changing?

People in our era, and our parents era, were loyal. That means every birthday we will go to the same restaurant, every anniversary or important occasion we will go to same restaurant. You knew, every Christmas, we will eat this. We had loyalty. Today, there is zero loyalty. The new generation has zero loyalty. They can wear any brand, they can eat whatever they want, and they are not loyal to anything. So it is hard times for restaurants and that's the reason why the restaurants are not doing well. And yet, some restaurants are doing extremely well. If your restaurant is Instagram friendly, it's worth going and being seen there, then you're working well. Sadly, it is not about food anymore.

When there’s no loyalty and attention span is so short, how do you build a luxury product today that has a shelf life of, say, at least five years?

I would say not even five years. Five years is a long shelf life today. Especially for a restaurant that is based on such innovation and madness as Gaggan. I wrote a script last year, we implemented in March, and this March will be the last of it. When people come for Gaggan, it is going to be for that music, light, sound, experiential element. It is not just about a restaurant and food and technique. It is way beyond. It is all about the whole experience of being in a restaurant. From the year 2026 to 2028, let's say three years, whatever we do in these three years, we look at how we can push our restaurant to our prime of what we do. In restaurants like us, the expiry is three to four years, and then you have to renew it. And I think in fine dining in general, a restaurant has an expiry of maximum eight years. If you want to stretch it, ninth year is glory, and then get out.

How important are awards?

Very sad, but very important. There are restaurants that are not doing well, and suddenly they get an award, and they see a full house. They're not ready for it. And they get a full house. It is also important who comes at your restaurant after that award. People don't realise that, but I know that if you get a three Michelin star or something like that, the guests will change. If let's say, I become number one in the world, the people who made me will not be able to get in. And it is sad, because in my journey from being no one to being number one, those people are important more than the ones who come because of the award.

On a lighter note, I need to make sure that my awards are high up there so that I can implement things like people without phones. To do those radical things you need to be like best of best and tell diners ‘no phone, no picture, live the moment’.

Do you also look at Instagram and see what others are doing?

No. I'm more inspired by life. So if I'm walking around and see something in that inspiration or story, a belief, that helps me. But nothing to do with being inspired by an influencer or a video or a viral trend. I'm inspired by music. I'm inspired by concerts. This might have nothing to do with food. But I do my lighting, according to concerts.

In today's age of chat GPT and AI, how does a creative mind like you work?

I'm against chat GPT. I'm against AI. There's a new app everyday on creativity, where you can put what you want, happy face, funny face, everything it does for you. I mean, the good thing is that we can't have sex with AI and we can't eat with AI. So you know that as long as eating and having sex is going on, there's no fear of AI. But in the end, jokes apart, I think it is very personal. If AI can find cure for cancer, AI is the God. But stay away from food. Stay away from many things that are human. Stay away from many creative things like writing a song or producing music. We are losing tradition. We're losing everything you ask from a restaurant. The only reason people want AI in their restaurant business is to create more profit. Will it make a chef lazy and jobless? Yes. So that's my problem with AI.

How do you counter it?

It is inevitable. But as I said, we are not robots, we're humans. And when you connect with humans, that will make us more special. Everything around me is AI, and then you suddenly are asked to become so human. I mean, you switch off your phone, no pictures, and you are human again.

And last thing, what's your restaurant in India going to be?

It is in collaboration with my chef partner Rydo, who's gone 200 times to India. He and I will do a restaurant together. He's Indonesian, but understands India very well. I can't tell much, because there's so much of surprise. I’ll be ruining the whole idea of all the creative process I went through by talking much. But I want to assert I'm not trying to come and show off. I'm trying to come and learn and be part of the culture, and this part of this incredible growth of restaurants in India. I’m looking at collectively growing together. That's why I'm cooking with these younger generation Indian chefs. It is to make sure that I become a part. So that we can hold hand each other and move forward together and show a better India.