Chef k.N.Vinod

My mother never wrote a recipe down in her life. Ammachi cooked every meal from memory - from instinct built across generations in Irinjalakuda, Kerala. She was the most gifted cook I have ever known. , and she taught me everything that mattered even after I entered a professional kitchen . The book begins with her.

Flavors of My Journey is a memoir-cookbook — part personal history, part culinary pilgrimage, part tribute to the ingredients and people that shaped forty years of cooking. It traces a journey from a military school in Bangalore to the Ashok Hotel in New Delhi, where I cooked for 42 heads of state at the age of twenty-five. From Washington DC, where my partner Surfy and I launched and ran Bombay Bistro , Indique & Indique Heights, serving the Washington Metropolitan area for over three decades.

And it traces a journey back — across India, through the spice markets of Guntur, the jaggery farms of Erode, the cardamom hills of Munnar, and the coconut groves of Kerala — to understand the ingredients I have cooked with my entire career.

This is the story I have been living for a long time. I am ready to tell it.

What’s inside

The Memoir

From Kerala to New Delhi to Washington DC — forty years of kitchens, restaurants, and the people who shaped my life.

The Spice Pilgrimage

A journey through India's great spice-growing regions —Pepper Vines from Munnar, Kerala; Turmeric from Erode, Tamilnadu; Chilli yards of Guntur, Andhra Pradesh; Jaggery farms of Erode, Tamilnadu.

Ammachi's Kitchen

The recipes and stories of my mother — the greatest cook I have ever known. Her pickles, chutneys, payasams and her many Kerala specialties.

Ammachi and Vinod in our home kitchen

The Photography

"Photographed across India and Washington DC — the ingredients, the places, the people — seen through a chef's eye."

About the Author

K.N. Vinod was born in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. He studied at a military school in Bangalore and completed his hotel management in Madras before training at the Ashok Hotel in New Delhi. His roots — and his cooking — come from Irinjalakuda, Kerala, where his mother Ammachi's kitchen shaped everything. He moved to Washington DC in 1985, where he co-founded Bombay Bistro, Indique, and Indique Heights with his partner Surfy — restaurants that served Washington DC for over three decades.

He is a James Beard Foundation Chefs Boot Camp alumnus, a World Central Kitchen Chef Corps member, and a Food Network personality known for appearing on Beat Bobby Flay. He is also a photographer, culinary tour leader, and consultant to RASA restaurants. He served six years on the board of DC Central Kitchen, cooking alongside Alice Waters, Joan Nathan, and José Andrés.

Flavors of My Journey is his first book.

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