Her restaurant, Gaa, was awarded a MICHELIN star within a year of its opening, this is the first one ever for an Indian woman. In 2019 she became Asia’s best female chef and to add another accolade to her hat came the 2022 MICHELIN Guide Young Chef Award!!
There are chances that you might not know her as a MICHELIN star chef but as the first female judge of India’s most popular culinary show “Masterchef India Season 7 ”. On her strategy as a judge, she said that
“I believe it’s important to be fair but at the same time, you must understand that the contestants are home cooks, not professional chefs. The most important thing is not to push them too hard and judge fairly with positive and constructive feedback to help guide them.”
Read further to know about the woman who is putting India on the global culinary man, the woman who created history, Garima Arora…
Personal Details of Garima Arora
Name
Garima Arora
Profession
Chef
Famous for
She is India’s first woman to earn a Michelin Star in November 2018
Date of birth
9 November 1988
Age
34 years old (as of 2022)
Zodiac Sign
Scorpio
Languages known
Hindi and English
Birthplace
Mumbai, Maharashtra
Hometown
Amritsar, Punjab
Nationality
Indian
Religion
Hindu
Father’s Name
Anil Arora
Mother’s Name
Neetu Arora
Siblings
Brother- Nauroze Arora
Relationship Status
Married
Boyfriend/Husband
Rahul Verma, he is a pilot for Jet Airways
Hobbies
Cooking, Watching movies, Reading, traveling
Controversy (if any)
Not Known
Mantra in life
Keep going at it, success doesn’t come overnight. Be consistent and surround yourself with people who share and believe in your vision.
Early Life, Family, and Education of Garima Arora Garima Arora was born on 9 November 1988 in Mumbai, Maharashtra to a Punjabi family. She had a very normal upbringing with her brother, Nauroze Arora. Hailing from a Punjabi family, Arora was always fond of cooking and eating but never took the serious step of doing that for a living as the culinary industry is predominated by men.
She went on to pursue journalism and mass media at the University of Mumbai and did a small gig as a journalist before she took the final plunge and decided to give her passion at least one chance. With the support of her family, Garima went to one of the best culinary schools in the world, ‘Le Cordon bleu Paris Institute’ to pursue her diploma and learn the art of cooking from the best!
Garima Arora’s Career and Achievements A mass media student turned chef!! She developed an interest in cooking because of the foodie nature of her father but her professional journey with cooking began in 2010 when she graduated from Le Cordon bleu Paris Institute after completing the Grand Diplôme.
Post that she went on to work at Noma restaurant in Copenhagen for a year or so and later she became a sous-chef at Goggan restaurant in Bangkok.
Becoming a sous-chef so early on in her career, worked as a confidence booster for Garima to open her own restaurant. And then in 2017, she opened her own restaurant, named Gaa in Bangkok. Unbeknownst to her, this is where her journey to become one of the best chefs in Asia begins.
Within a year of opening, the chef is awarded her first Michelin star in November 2018, making her the first Indian woman to be awarded a Michelin star . She didn’t stop here and why would she? When you have the talent and determination to conquer the world then you might as well go out and do that!!!
Garima opened Gaa in Mumbai as well and the story repeated here as well, her amalgamation of international cuisine with traditional Indian recipes received traction briskly.
Last year in February Garima received the Young Chef Award from the 2022 Michelin Guide Thailand.
I bet this doesn’t stop here, Garima Arora has a long way to go and this is just the beginning of her journey to conquer the world with Indian spices.
Challenges Faced by Garima Arora The first and foremost challenge she faced was taking the first step toward her passion and goal. For many many years the culinary industry is under the command of men so much so that the word chef is associated with men and to address women ‘female chef’ is used.
But Garima decided to give it her all and got herself enrolled in one of
the best culinary schools in the world, and the rest is history.
Coming to the challenges faced by her during her career, she spoke about it in her recent appearance on ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’ with Vikas Khanna and Ranveer Brar.
Garima Arora discussed the challenges she faced in her journey in an industry that is originally dominated by men. She revealed,
“Luckily, I have always been surrounded by great men. They have been very kind and accommodating throughout my career. But yes, it is indeed a challenging profession dominated by men but once you make up your mind that this is something you want to do then it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman, you will own it.”
Physical Appearance of Garima Arora
Skin Tone Fair
Eye Color Light Brown
Hair Color Brown
Height 5 feet 7 inches
Weight 60 Kg
Bust size, Waist size, Hip size 34-26-34
Social Media Accounts
Social Media Account ID Followers
Instagram arorgarima 1,42,000
YouTube Not known
Not Applicable
Twitter Not known
Not Applicable
Facebook Not known
Not Applicable
Some Lesser Known Facts About Garima Arora
You might think that Garima Arora must be a foodie coming from the culinary industry, well, she is but she is also a fitness enthusiast to balance her taste buds and health.
Garima loves to travel and traveling to new destinations inspires her to try new cuisines and experiment in her kitchen.
Garima is vocal about the need for chefs to be conscious and sustainable in their cooking and the impact it has on the environment.
Her cuisines involve complex international recipes simplified by traditional Indian approaches. She is a firm believer in Indian households having the best culinary secrets and takes her inspiration from there.
She mentors many young chefs and takes an active step to mentor more and more young women to take up this as a career in order to balance the gender gap in the industry.
Garima has been a fan of Kabir Bedi ever since she can remember but to her unfortunate luck when Kabir visited her restaurant, Gaa, in Mumbai she was on a leave! Sharing her disappointment she said,
‘Kabir Bedi came to the restaurant when I wasn’t here. He’s been my childhood crush since I was a kid. Since I watched Khoon Bhari Maang, in fact. But I wasn’t in the kitchen the night he came to GAA. When I came back the next day and someone told me, I totally flipped and kept asking why no one told me when he was there.’
Apart from her stint on The Kapil Sharma Show, Garima has appeared on various other shows as a guest which includes Indian Idol Season 13 and Kaun Banega Crorepati Season 14.
She dotes on her dog who goes by the name ‘Alooji’.
Garima is the founder of the Nonprofit Organization ‘Food Forward India’. Founded in 2020, Food Forward India aims to take forward and map India’s traditional, rural, tribal, and urban cuisines across the world.
Garima shares a friendly rapport with her peers like Ranveer Brar and Vikas Khanna. The trio is often seen together at various events and make appearances on each other’s Instagram as well.
Ranveer spoke about Garima’s journey to the top on The Kapil Sharma show, he said,
‘Garima has achieved so much. There is something like the spirit of aggressive feminism that women can also do it, Garima always showcases that women can also do it; both men and women deserve chances irrespective of gender. I guess she has that focused and great head space that will continue taking her to the heights.’
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