On March 3, 2020, Thomas Danigo opened his first restaurant, Galanga, at the Parisian boutique hotel Monsieur George. Two weeks later, it was closed—the first food disaster of the Covid-19 pandemic. “It was terrible, to be honest,” Danigo, 32, told the Observer, sitting in the restaurant before dinner service on a cold November night. “It was my first place as a chef, and I started with a lot of problems. I got a lot of information, good and bad. But in the end, it was good for the future.”
Looking back, the French chef realizes that the challenge was part of his journey, which saw the restaurant reopen, transform and earn its first Michelin star.
Danigo, who was sous chef at Laurent for more than seven years before joining Monsieur George, initially thought Galanga was a casual restaurant. “It was a little good,” but not the fine dining of the restaurant we are. The location of the hotel, just outside the Champs-Élysées, attracts customers who want a long night in one place, rather than going in for an abbreviated dinner.
At the end of summer 2021, after the restaurant was allowed to reopen, Danigo changed the menu and service to a tasting menu of five or seven courses for 30 diners each night. His goal was a Michelin star, which Galanga won earlier this year.
“It's amazing when your job is not just a job, but your whole life,” he said. “To accomplish something like that is amazing. It was the most powerful feeling I've ever had in my life, and now I feel free in my work circle. Before the Michelin star, I was a rookie chef, a new chef, a young chef. Now, I am part of that family.”
Although Danigo is too young to run his own restaurant, he has been cooking since he was 17 years old, often working 16-hour days. It's difficult, he admits, because he's devoted his entire life to the culinary industry, which means he “has no girlfriend, no children, no pets.” It's rare to get into a chef, although something that is often true in the culinary industry. This is not to say that Danigo has no personal life at all–on his one day off each week, he runs and cooks with his best friend, who also works at Galanga. “It's all about fitness in my life,” he said, admitting that even his personal life depends on his work. “All or nothing.”
However, a laser focus on cooking means Danigo can put all his energy into creating the best possible dining experience. He says: “I don't know why I put all my energy into my work. “I absolutely want to do it, and I don't know why I'm like this. But it's my way of expressing myself. As a teenager, I was very shy, and in my bubble. I didn't talk to people. And since I started cooking and became a chef, I talk to people. I can express myself through food and my plates.”
Becoming a chef was not inevitable for Danigo, who grew up in Chartres, France. At first he wanted to be a ski coach, until he went to Canada to study at a ski school. But something about cooking called to him, because food was always something he found comforting when life got tough.
“I grew up hard and my father wasn't there, and I was alone with my mother,” he remembers. “Every time I had a hard time, I would run to my grandmother and she would always welcome me in the kitchen and cook what I like to make me feel better. When I returned to France from Canada, I had to choose what to do. And in this difficult time, I was afraid, so I ran to the kitchen again and decided to become a chef.”
“At first I was very bad, but later I liked it. I decided that if I'm going to do something with my life, I'm going to do it completely.”
After years of practice, Danigo now accepts very little sensitivity in Galanga. A chef once advised him to keep dishes to only three ingredients, and it's something he's been thinking about ever since. His style is neither ostentatious nor overly strategic. “Yes, we have many strategies, but you don't see it on the plate,” he explained. “I just want you to eat it and say, 'Oh, my God, it's so good.' I want it to look easy, but it's not easy at all. There is always a little surprise or taste. Like comfort food. Like grandma's food.”
The menu is refined but not rigid, with moments of delightful fun. Danigo rotates the dishes seasonally, but never changes the entire menu at once. Instead, he introduces something new every few weeks based on what's currently available. And although many dishes include a hero protein, such as beef or scallop, the focus is on the best quality product that the chef can find in the market or suppliers. Danigo finds fresh ingredients everywhere, from social media to cooking shows to the market near his home in Boulogne. But things come from the people he interacts with.
“I love the products, sure, but I love the people more,” he says. “I like to share and talk to people because [it is] it's all about feelings with me. I can be emotional about a product, but I'm more emotional with people. If there is an apple, it is important who it comes from.” He adds that an idea for a dish, like the current apple dessert, can come just because you have that feeling with the person selling it. “I want to keep the feelings and give them to my customer,” he said.
Although the menu emphasizes French cuisine, Danigo also incorporates Italian and Asian flavors. Japanese barbecue sauce garnishes the steak, which is currently served with corn, while the scallop comes washed in dashi with orange rice. Currently, no dish served in Galanga has only three ingredients—as Danigo was advised to do—but many focus on one or two main ingredients. The charred leek, a highlight of the current tasting menu, gets a saltiness from the dusted pecorino cheese and a creamy boost from the smoked sabayon. But in the end, it's all about that leek.
“At the end of the meal, I want you to feel light, so my food is always delicate,” he says. “There is always acid and sourness because it makes you salivate and digest quickly. I try to have three stars of the dish, like leek, guanciale and pecorino. Anything else to make it look good and push the taste. So if there's a little caviar in the squid, it's not about the caviar.”
Creating these dishes consumes everything for Danigo so much that he lies awake at night thinking about them. He wants to continue the challenge and continue to push himself, both as a chef and as a leader of his team in the kitchen. When he launched Galanga in his late 20s, Danigo had no idea how to be a good manager. Admittedly, it was difficult at first—and it wasn't something he had time to learn when he worked at Laurent because the days were very difficult. Now, after five years, the chef feels free.
“You have to be in control [people] one by one to be a good manager,” he said. “You don't ask them to practice. You adapt to your team and try to get the best out of each person. When you're young and starting out, you don't know this. I can't say I'm a perfect manager, because that's not true. We have a lot of pressure. Sometimes I scream a little. Sometimes I get tired. I'm not a robot. But I have changed a lot and I understood that I have to adapt with my team.”
Next, perhaps there is a second star in Galanga's future. But Danigo has no patience. He knows it will take time and is willing to put in the work to get there.
He says: “We enjoyed the first one. “We will continue to grow. And later, we will move on to the second. But I won't tell you that I want it next year or two years. At the moment, I am proud that the restaurant is full almost every night. And I'm proud because my cooking style has changed a lot and will continue to change.”
