Garima Arora- The first Indian woman to bag a Michelin star

Guwahati: Whether you name it as Indian food or the Indian Chefs, both are in high demand in the international platform these days as both possess some qualities that is hardly matched by anything else. With the male chefs of the country already making a mark and it is now the female chef, Garima Arora’s turn, who in just 32-years, has been able to bag the fame of being the first-ever female Indian chef to helm a Michelin-starred restaurant.

A Mumbai born and bred girl, Garima, at first did not dream of being a chef. A mass media student from Mumbai’s Jai Hind College, she had realized her actual destiny only at the age of 21 and made her way to Paris’s famous Cordon Bleu culinary school. Garima has an experience of working with world-famous chefs like Gordon Ramsay, Gaggan Anand and René Redzepi.

Garima, speaking about her life and choice of career from being a journalist to a chef, says that although she always had a dream of having a restaurant of her own, her determination got stronger after working as a journalist for six months. Jotting down the positive and negative things about cooking as a profession, she said, “The high point is that cooking is creatively very satisfying. It is therapeutic to be doing something with my hands. The low point is that this profession is physically demanding and it takes all the time away from my loved ones.”

Sharing her feelings on becoming the first Indian woman to have been able to bag the Michelin star, Garima says that of course there is a good feeling on being tagged as the first woman to get such recognition. She also added that women today are gaining fame and success in various fields of work.

When she was asked as what is the next big thing taking place in the culinary trends she said that the restaurants made in the theme of natural wine bars and ethnic cuisines are gaining a lot of popularity these days. Such restaurants can be found in Bangkok. If the same is thought to be implemented in India, then it can be non-alcoholic juice pairings and ethnic food.

She also added that among the Indian chefs, Srijith Gopinathan and Palash Mitra are her favourites. Srijith has two Michelin-starred restaurants at the Taj Campton Place Hotel in San Francisco. Advising the new generation and budding chefs of the country, Garima says that one should learn to keep his head down and work and asked the women chefs especially not to be ashamed of or apologize to anyone for their choice of being chefs.

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