Our Bureau
San Francisco, CA
The 61-year-old celebrated Indian American chef, cookbook author and culinary teacher Raghavan Iyer died after battling cancer. “It is with a heavy and sad heart I must tell you of Raghavan’s passing this evening. He died peacefully at the University of California San Francisco hospital,” Terry Erickson, his partner of 41 years, stated.
“A celebration of life will be planned for a later date. I will post the information on his Facebook page,” he wrote. Thank you all for your thoughts and well wishes. He never saw a difference between family and friends, so I am sorry for your loss as well. Thank you,” he continued.
Iyer was born on April 21, 1961, in Chidambaram, a small town in the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, to Gangabai Ramachandran, a homemaker, and S Ramachandran, an officer in the Indian Navy and later moved the family to Mumbai.
Iyer was a consultant for restaurants throughout US, conducted tours to India and many workshops, created a line of frozen Indian meals, and even instructed thousands of professional cooks at universities, museums, and companies, including Google.
Iyer was the author of seven books. He published ‘Betty Crocker’s Indian Home Cooking’. His last book, ‘On the Curry Trail: Chasing the Flavor That Seduced the World in 50 Recipes,’ was written between bouts of chemotherapy and surgeries, was published this February.
