Indian-American Chef Raghavan Iyer Dies At 61 After Prolonged Battle With Cancer

Chef, cookbook author, culinary teacher and curry expert Raghavan Iyer died on Friday after a prolonged battle with cancer. He was 61. According to a New York Times report, Iyer taught Americans to cook Indian food. He has written seven cookbooks, including the iconic 660 curries.

New York Times reported that the cause of his death was pneumonia complicated by colorectal cancer that had metastasized to his lungs and brain. He lived in Minneapolis and was visiting San Franciso at his death.

In one of his final interviews with BBC in March this year, he talked about the latest - and last - book, On the Curry Trail: Chasing the Flavor That Seduced the World. In the interview, he expressed his hope for this book to become his lasting legacy in Indian cooking, especially the versatility of curry around the world.

He said, "The book is telling the story of how curry travelled out of India, all around the world." Through his books, he wanted his readers to know that there is more to curry than just curry powders. He described the book as his "love letter to the world of curries" and hoped it would be his "lasting legacy to the richness and vastness of this dish simply called curry".

He was born on April 21, 1961, in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, to Gangabai Ramachandran, a homemaker, and S. Ramachandran, an officer in the Indian navy who later moved the family to Mumbai. He was the youngest of six children. His oldest sister, Lalitha Iyer, was a resident in obstetrics and gynaecology when their mother was pregnant with Mr Iyer, and she helped deliver him, reported New York Times.