Gaggan Anand is India's rockstar chef

When I met chef Gaggan Anand, I found him cheerful and warm, just as he had been over a phone conversation from Bombay-Bangkok a few months ago.

But going by the words of caution I had got before my meeting with him, the chef seems to have garnered quite a reputation for himself and his disposition. A friend told me to expect moodiness; another warned me about his arrogance.

While one was a journalist who had met Anand before, the other has encountered him on social media as well as the Netflix series Chef's Table.

Anand has over 33,000 followers on Instagram and is an extremely active user. "If you get a 'f*ck you' in response to one of your posts on my Instagram feed, you can be sure it's me saying that to you. I run my own account," the chef said to me.

His personal accounts may be unfiltered but when it comes to the press, he says he needs to have a PR team to do "damage control". He has a short fuse, and he admits it. It's why he refused to do a cooking demo or a press conference on his quick trip to Mumbai a few weeks ago. "Someone will ask a stupid question and I'll lose it."

Diplomacy is clearly not a strong point. But innovation in the kitchen is; which is why I was thoroughly disappointed that his 15-course pop-up dinner in the city wasn't open to all.

Someone on social media had expressed the same sentiment: "Welcome, ironically since getting on your pop-ups is all about clout, I plan to fly to BKK for a meal at your restaurant. Not a complaint, looking forward to the trip!"

Anand responded to both of us in the same way, by welcoming us to his Bangkok restaurant. To me, he confessed to not having had much control over the invitees.

He wasn't sure about who he was going to have to serve, but his only criterion was they must be food lovers, he said expressing great annoyance at what he calls "fake foodies".

My favourite part of the interview came next when he began to imitate this breed of pretenders, taking in a mock bite and screaming "wow." "Twenty-three years have taught me this. I can tell when you're pretending and it really puts me off," he added.

But he enjoys visiting the country and gaining its approval. "I feel like I'm famous here, but in the right way. I don't need to be on the cover of the magazine or host Masterchef," he said.

So this is where he wanted to come to showcase the new experiments he had been working on at his innovation lab in Bangkok. Whipping out his phone, whose photo gallery is a treasure trove of all of his latest obsessions from Japanese markets to his little baby girl, he showed me pictures of what was going to be on the menu: freeze-dried peaches, his version of masala chai ("a thin cellophane-like wrap which melts as you put it in your mouth"), and a golf ball that hides secret flavours.

Fame apart, Anand still identifies as an Indian. "I still have an Indian passport and I'll die an Indian."

And India does love right him back. He was thoroughly amused when he and his team were garlanded at 2am when they were checking-in to their luxury Bandra hotel.

Perhaps it is because of his persona, his Anthony Bourdain-like say-it-like-it-is attitude that makes him so much more beloved. After all, how many have actually tasted his food?

Also read - Can Indian food be "molecular-ised" and still be Indian?