Say it isn’t so. Hot on the heels of being crowned the best restaurant in Asia, chef Gaggan Anand has announced that he will close the gourmet restaurant in 2020. Far from it being a failure, the decision to set the best-by date on Gaggan in Bangkok, has more to do with re-invention and looking ahead to future plans.
“I think in five years I could be getting to that point where I will become a person who gets grumpy, arrogant and pissed off the customers if I keep doing the same thing without any change,” he told Fine Dining Lovers.
While the closure of the restaurant is not for anohter six years, the chef is already talking about his next venture that is likely to be set in Japan. If all goes according to plan, we may see a new concept by the chef in 2022, that will seat less than 10 diners.
The move to shutter at the peak of the restaurant’s popularity takes a page directly from the playbook of one of the world’s most legendary chefs.
Anand is a disciple of elBulli chef Ferran Adrià, who did the unthinkable and closed the Catalan restaurant in 2011 when it was receiving two million reservation requests for 8,000 seats. Part of the problem for Adria of course was that the restaurant did not have enough capacity to meet his ambitious agenda or to cover his costs so in that way at least, the Gaggan issue is different.
The restaurant snagged the title of World’s Best Restaurant five times and is widely credited for popularizing molecular gastronomy.
Likewise, another Adria disciple, Danish celebrity chef Rene Redzepi, announced plans to raze his world famous Copenhagen restaurant Noma and resurrect it as an ‘urban farm,’ serving farm-to-table cuisine in the heart of the city thanks to a rooftop greenhouse.
Those looking to savor Noma’s cuisine, can do so till New Year’s Eve in 2016, though there is no word yet on Gaggan, which is ok since the expiry date is only in 2020.
The post Gaggan’s chef Announces Plans to Close in 2020 appeared first on LUXUO.