Mythrayie Iyer, founder of FarmLore, a Bengaluru company that offers degustation menus, says fine dining tends to attract women "because it demands focus, creativity, precision and an eye for detail, which are often strengths for many women." (Courtesy of Mythrayie Iyer)
BINDU GOPAL RAO
NEW DELHI -- Garima Arora is a rarity on many levels. A Michelin-starred female Indian chef, she became famous for her acclaimed restaurant Gaa in Bangkok, Thailand. She was then named Asia's top woman chef and has now just opened her first restaurant back home, in New Delhi.
Arora says her success reflects the support of her "visionary" parents rather than the positive discrimination implied in the title of Asia's Best Female Chef, which she won in the 2019 edition of the annual Asia's 50 Best Restaurants awards. She asserts, though, that positive discrimination is justified given the limited opportunities for women in India as she was growing up in the 1990s, when female roles were "kind of pre-decided."