I have been thinking about two completely different restaurants this week. One is in Bangkok. The other is in New York. Both are wildly popular. Both are run by Indian chefs. And the success of both is extraordinary enough to suggest that something is changing in the way the world looks at Indian food.
The Bangkok restaurant is the new Gaggan at Louis Vuitton, in Ploenchit. The building has been taken over by Louis Vuitton and must be the fanciest, most up to date Vuitton store in the world. There is a small restaurant (around 40 covers) run by Gaggan.
There are several extraordinary things about this. First, why would Vuitton not choose a French chef? Second, if not French, then why not a Thai chef in Bangkok? And third, why choose Gaggan with his reputation as the unpredictable genius and his love of Japanese designer wear?
I don't have any answers to these questions but when I went for dinner last week, I was startled by how elegant the restaurant was (every last detail is by Louis Vuitton including the glasses and the napkin holders) and how absolutely perfect the service was. It was the sort of experience you would get at a two-Michelin star restaurant in Paris.
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