Raghavan Iyer, a chef, cookbook author, culinary instructor, and curry expert, died on Friday after a prolonged battle with cancer. He taught Americans how to cook Indian food, according to a recent New York Times article. He has written seven cookbooks, including the now-iconic 660 Curries.
Terry Erickson, his partner, confirmed the news on his Instagram account. “It is with a heavy heart that I inform you of Raghavan’s death this evening. He died peacefully at the University of California San Francisco hospital “the statement stated.
Iyer Hoped Final Cookbook To Become His Lasting Legacy To Indian Cooking:
Chef Raghavan Iyer expressed his hope in one of his final interviews for his final cookbook to become his lasting legacy to Indian cooking, particularly the versatility of curry, according to the BBC.
The BBC report included excerpts from the interview. According to Iyer, the book “tells the story of how curry travelled out of India, all around the world.” He described how British colonists in the nineteenth century became so enamoured with the saucy flavours of Indian food that they had their cooks “pound the spices together and put them in a jar” so they could bring them back to England. “They labelled it curry powder, and that’s how everyone else knows it,” he explained.
Iyer described the book as a “love letter to the world of curries,” and hoped that it would be his “lasting legacy to the richness and vastness of this dish simply known as curry.” As a result, there is history, folklore, and familial ties sprinkled throughout the book, as well as a detailed account of how curry has been adapted by various cultures both east and west.
Raghavan Iyer, born on April 21, 1961, in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, immigrated to the United States as a young man. In a previous interview with the New York Times, he stated, “When I first came to this country, I was almost embarrassed about where I was from and the food we ate,” adding that he later realised that his culture was the “tool” he could use to overcome his feelings of inferiority.