East-West Kitchen Wisdom

With his New York kitchen, chef Suvir Saran proves that Indian equipment isn’t essential for Indian cooking.

Chef Suvir Saran’s newly renovated kitchen in Hebron, New York, may look all-American, but it has everything he needs to cook the fabulous Indian dishes he prepares at New York City’s Dévi. “My life is all about blending my Indian upbringing with Western culture,” says Saran, who recently published American Masala, a cookbook of Indian-inflected American recipes. Instead of using traditional Indian cookware, Saran and his partner, Charlie Burd, cook at home on Western equipment. In India, Saran’s chile-flecked chickpea flatbread would be prepared in a tawa, a thin metal skillet, but Saran makes it perfectly on his 60-inch Viking stove’s built-in griddle.

Go Inside Chef Suvir Saran’s New York Kitchen

Flavors of India

Published May 2008