Kerala

I was born in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, and spent my school years at a military school in Bangalore. Kerala — my family's home in Irinjalakuda — was always where the food was. Every holiday, every homecoming, I returned to my Ammachi's kitchen. She cooked every meal from memory — no recipes, no measurements, just instinct built across generations. She was the most gifted cook I have ever known. She taught me everything that mattered even after I entered a professional kitchen.

She lived with me in Washington DC for forty years. She cooked in my kitchen almost every day until she could no longer stand. Every dish I have made in my career carries something of hers.

New Delhi

I completed my studies in the Culinary Arts, Restaurant & Hotel Management in Madras. I joined the 5 -Star, Super deluxe Ashok Hotel in New Delhi as a Chef Management Trainee — one of India's grandest properties and the official host of Heads of State and diplomatic summits. In 1983, I was part of the team cooking for the CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting), conference. As the chef deputed for the pre-dinner tasting, I personally carried the food, crockery, and cutlery samples to the Prime Minister's residence. Mrs. Indira Gandhi tasted the food, looked directly at me, and said — make it More Chatpata. More Alive. More Bold.

I have carried those words in my kitchen for forty years. They changed how I season. They changed how I understand food — not as something that fills a plate, but as something that should make a person feel something.

Washington DC

I moved to Washington DC in 1985 and spent six years at Tandoor, one of the city's leading Indian restaurants at the time. In 1992, my partner Surfy and I opened Bombay Bistro in Rockville, Maryland. We had no investors, no safety net, and more than a few people who doubted whether we could make it work. We made it work for thirty-three years.

We went on to open Bombay Bistro Fairfax, Indique in Cleveland Park, and Indique Heights in Chevy Chase. Indique became one of Washington DC's most celebrated Indian restaurants — recognised by the Michelin Guide, named one of the top ten Indian restaurants in the world by RAVE SQ magazine, and a long-standing fixture on Washingtonian Magazine's 100 Very Best Restaurants list.

Along the way, I served six years on the board of DC Central Kitchen — teaching cooking techniques to job training students and cooking alongside friends including Alice Waters, Joan Nathan, and José Andrés. Food, I have always believed, is the most direct form of generosity.

The Spice Pilgrimage

Before writing my memoir, I traveled across India to understand — truly understand — the ingredients I had been cooking with for forty years. I stood in the Guntur mirchi yard in Andhra Pradesh, where 40% of India's chillies are traded, with my eyes watering from the capsaicin in the air. I visited a jaggery making facility in Kavindapadi, Erode, and watched cane juice transform into gold. I walked cardamom farms in the hills above Munnar and visited pepper growers in my own family's hometown of Irinjalakuda.

I brought my camera to photograph my field trips in India. — on these journeys and across my career I have been photographing The Spices, The Food, The People, The Places. Seen the way a chef sees them: up close, in the light, at the moment when the ingredient is most itself.

Now

Today I consult for RASA — the award-winning fast casual Indian restaurant co-founded by my son Rahul and Surfy's son Sahil. I helped them to develop the concept and scale it up to multi-unit.

I lead exclusive culinary tours to India, taking small groups into the private kitchens, spice farms, and palace dining rooms that most visitors never see.

Now I am writing my first book.

Flavors of My Journey: A Chef's Culinary Odyssey is a memoir-cookbook that traces this entire arc — from Ammachi's kitchen in Kerala to the present day. It is the story I have been carrying for a long time. I am ready to tell it.

Food Network - Beat Bobby Flay
James Beard Foundations Chefs Boot Camp Alumnus
World Central Kitchen Chef Corps
DC Central Kitchen Board Member : six years
Co-founder : Bombay Bistro - Indique - Indique Heights
40 years in Professional Kitchens

My Book

Flavors of My Journey: A Chef's Culinary Odyssey is my first book — a memoir-cookbook bringing together forty years of stories, recipes, and the spices that made them. Ammachi's Kerala fish curry, her garden chutneys and pickles, her payasam made for every celebration — dishes she never wrote down, now finally preserved. And the stories behind every one of them.

Coming soon. Join the waitlist to be the first to know.