Gaggan Anand x Louis Vuitton: The Hottest Culinary Collaboration Unveiled In Bangkok
- 20 Mar '24
- 11:34 am by Vatsala Sethi
Bangkok is well known for its innovative dining scene, home to some of the most well-known restaurants in the world, including Le Normandie, Mezzaluna, J’aime by Jean-Michel Lorain, and many more. The capital city is now an epicurean treasure thanks to the addition of yet another culinary gem to its already outstanding collection of culinary pleasures.
Together with renowned chef Gaggan Anand, Louis Vuitton has inaugurated its first Southeast Asian restaurant in Bangkok, fusing the worlds of high food and haute couture. The restaurant, named Gaggan at Louis Vuitton, will offer a mix of fine dining and high fashion. This will be the latest addition to Louis Vuitton‘s dining ventures, which includes successful initiatives like Le Cafe V and Sugalabo V in Osaka and a summer cafe in Saint Tropez.
The Indian Chef announced the restaurant’s official opening on Instagram. He posted a lovely mention of the photo with the caption mentioning several people along with that said, “Let Fashion be Food,” and thanked everyone who had assisted him in designing the area. He revealed the façade of the eatery with its iconic LV bags piled on top of each other in another picture. The chef discussed how the restaurant’s interior design took about a year to complete and involved several trips to Paris. He said that he “put together creative ideas on food and made it fashionable” when he and his team got together to create the ceramics.
Chef Gaggan Anand is well-known for his avant-garde and nonconformist approach to Indian cuisine. He continues his record of changing eating conventions with this cooperation by bringing his narrative and creative dining style. Well-known for his extraordinary cooking abilities, he became the first Indian chef to be awarded two of the coveted Michelin stars.
Also read: Michelin-Star Restaurants Of 2023 In Dubai Offer An Unforgettable Culinary Experience
All under one roof inside the recently refurbished Gaysorn Amarin retail mall, the space is a tribute to cutting-edge design, further distinguished by its magical façade of shining diamond forms. Inside, guests are welcomed into a complex realm where food, shopping, and culture all come together to create an unforgettable and immersive experience within the Louis Vuitton universe.
The exhibition ‘Visionary Journeys’ on the ground level has themed rooms that are arranged in unique settings, reinterpreting both classic and modern Louis Vuitton objects. There are five themed rooms: ‘Trunkscape,’ ‘Origins,’ ‘Iconic Bags,’ ‘Collaboration,’ and ‘Souvenirs’—all set up to create different dynamics and display LV’s vast collection of fashion objects.
The second floor sees the boutique, which carries a few store-exclusive items. The concept offers both men’s and women’s products in greater fluidity, surrounded by vivid artwork and vintage furniture arrangements that are carefully curated to appeal to the most discerning customers who value superb design above all else. The ‘Le Café Louis Vuitton, on the other hand, lures you in with its lush, floral motifs combined with Maison features like the monogram parquet floor and recognisable Objets Nomades.
On the top level, acclaimed Indian chef Gaggan Anand’s restaurant, Gaggan at Louis Vuitton, has crafted a food journey that includes both lunch and supper for the Maison‘s first restaurant in South Asia. A chamber with sloping walls dotted with resin structures by Draga & Aurel, Monogram flower lamps, and fringed drapes greets you as you enter this culinary journey. Ten Italian marble tables seat guests in this exclusive restaurant, which serves a seasonal cuisine that is unique to Louis Vuitton and is centred around the five Ss: sweet, sour, salty, spicy, and surprise. Each composition is served on a unique platter, ranging from a mushroom recipe with a Damier design to dressed lobster with Thai influences.
Along with his team, Chef Gaggan may also make an appearance during the dining experiences, providing a detailed explanation of each dish’s origin and how it is intended to be enjoyed. It isn’t a typical fine dining experience. Although visitors soon discover this they try the second dish from a twelve-course meal aptly titled ‘Lick It Up,’ which requires them to pick up the plate and lick dispelling the idea of pretentiousness that is often associated with fine dining.
In an interview with Hypebeat, Chef Gaggan explains how he wants diners to dispel the pretentiousness that patrons often expect or present at fine dining establishments. All he wants them to focus on is the taste and quality of the food.
The ‘Lick It Up’ dish, as was previously described, is one example of how the Chef’s menu conceptually pushes beyond its boundaries. The ‘Cold Curry,’ a well-known speciality of Chef Gaggan’s is eaten when it is often hot, cooked food, but he presents it in a cold and uncooked state. When eaten, it surprises the senses since the overall flavour profile is consistent with the cooked version of the dish.
The entire idea celebrates the energy of Bangkok with a cross-cultural flair, much as LV The Place Bangkok expands Louis Vuitton‘s ambitious worldwide lifestyle goal. Local and international artists’ works are displayed throughout the building. Bringing a wider cultural experience into a single store, this 360 concept for Gaysorn Amarin establishes a new blueprint for Louis Vuitton spaces to come.
Gaggan’s culinary expertise is available at Louis Vuitton, where lunch and dinner seatings are available at 12:00 and 12:30 and 18:00 and 19:00, respectively. For an additional private dining experience, visit the Private Dining Room during the same lunch and dinner hours. A complete pre-payment of THB 50,000++ for lunch or THB 100,000++ for supper is needed to reserve this place. A sumptuous eight-course lunch meal is available for THB 4,000++, while a grand 17-course dinner buffet is available for THB 8,000++ at supper. Booking a table for an incredible culinary adventure is easy and may be done online with the chef’s website.