Raghavan Iyer

Raghavan Ramachandran Iyer (April 21, 1961 – March 31, 2023) was an Indian-born American chef and author. His series of cookbooks and guides to Indian cooking, beginning with Betty Crocker's Indian Home Cooking in 2001, introduced many Americans to the cuisine. He earned praise for accessibility and controversy for straying from tradition for his embrace of simplified ingredients such as curry powder.

Life and career Iyer was born in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India in 1961. He grew up in Mumbai. After using his background as a French teacher to find work in the field, he eventually became a chef and cookbook writer. His first book, published in 2001, was Betty Crocker's Indian Home Cooking, an introduction to Indian food aimed at Americans with limited previous experience with it. The Betty Crocker book was the first of a number of popular cookbooks on the subject; as the New York Times reported, he "has by some estimations taught more Americans how to cook Indian food than anyone else." In 2016, he won a James Beard Foundation Award for his video series Indian Curries: The Basics and Beyond. His final major project was a crowdfunded enterprise called The Revival Foods Project: Global Comforts That Heal.

Personal life and death Iyer met his future partner, Terry Erickson, on his first day in Minnesota; he and Erickson lived in Minneapolis and raised a son together.

Works