If you’re a food enthusiast, you ought to know about the Michelin Star. It’s a prestigious award given by the Michelin Guide that started in the early 1900s which was basically to help customers identify restaurants that were worth the experience. Every restaurant in the world dreams of earning this honour.
On November 14th, Garima Arora, a Mumbai-born chef was awarded a Michelin star for her Indo-Thai restaurant in Bangkok called GAA.
Garima is an extremely talented chef who’s worked alongside Gordon Ramsay, Gaggan Anand and René Redzepi. She studied culinary at the reputed Le Cordon Bleu and launched GAA in 2017. It’s barely been over a year and she has already received so much recognition for her work. Her team and the country are extremely proud of her.
On being asked what the challenges she faces as a woman in the industry she told Forbes,
I haven’t been a man chef so I can’t say! The challenges are probably the same, regardless of gender—leaving your family, working long hours and dealing with a physically demanding job. It’s financially daunting too, which is why there haven’t been many international chefs, male or female, coming from India. It’s not that we’re less talented or less hard-working, but we don’t have the opportunities and are not encouraged to explore. In its current state, I don’t think a René Redzepi could come out of India.
The new generation of chefs in India needs to think about the legacy they’re creating as an industry and work hard to build opportunities for the future.
We’re really proud of her and we’d be thrilled if she brings GAA to Mumbai, what say?
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