With Raga, Gaggan Anand Is Finally Coming Home
Raga is already the most anticipated opening of the year.
When I last spoke to Gaggan Anand in February, I asked him the question that's been on our mind for years: why doesn't he have a restaurant in India? His answer was typically Gaggan — characteristically vague, but tantalizingly specific. "I will. In four months. In Delhi." He wouldn't tell me the name. He wouldn't tell me the exact location. "I'm a Pisces," he said. "Pisces are mysterious. Like a fish. You can't catch a fish unless you bait it."
Then in March, he went and claimed Asia's #1 restaurant title for the fifth consecutive time — his Bangkok restaurant Gaggan topping the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list at the ceremony in Seoul. Business as usual for the most decorated Indian chef on the planet?!
Now, in April, we finally have the details on his upcoming restaurant. The restaurant is called Raga, it's opening in Delhi this year, and it might just be the most significant restaurant launch India has seen in a generation.
Located on Janpath — prime real estate sitting close to Rashtrapati Bhavan, flanked by the capital's most prominent government buildings, luxury hotels and historic markets — Raga will seat just 42 people.
Allegedly, there will be two tasting menus and we can expect Gaggan's greatest hits, including his legendary yoghurt explosion — the dish that made him famous, a riff on the olive spherification he learned under Ferran Adrià at El Bulli, reimagined with Indian flavours. Being in India will allow him, for the first time, to work directly with local produce.
The name, if you hadn't guessed, is a composite: RA from Rydo Anton, Gaggan's longtime Indonesian protégé and co-chef, and GA from Gaggan himself. It also connects to Indian classical music — a raga, in that sense, being both a structure and an improvisation. This really isn’t surprising once you consider Gaggan’s deep love for music. That dual meaning appears very much intentional.
His partner in the venture is Zorawar Kalra. Kalra is arguably India's most powerful restaurateur right now — the founder and managing director of Massive Restaurants, the company behind Masala Library, Farzi Café, Pa Pa Ya, and Made in Punjab. Massive Restaurants currently operates 26 brands across eight countries, and Kalra has spent years building the infrastructure and investor trust to take Indian cuisine global at scale. He is the son of Jiggs Kalra, widely considered the 'Czar of Indian Cuisine’.
The price point Gaggan has mentioned — targeting ₹8,000 per head — signals that he wants Raga to be bold but accessible by fine-dining standards.
For more details, I guess we’ll just have to wait.