EPISODE 9 Mark Bittman vs. Suvir Saran, Devi

Suvir Saran is a young, self-taught chef with a restaurant that Bittman says serves the best Indian food in the States. Born into an upper crust family in Bombay, Suvir learned much about food from his grandmother and his family's cook before coming to New York and getting into the fashion business. But the rave responses to parties he'd throw led him into the kitchen, and eventually to opening his own restaurant, Devi.

Suvir kicked the competition off with his Manchurian-style Cauliflower (Bittman loved that he made with a ton of ketchup), followed an amazing fried okra salad with tandoori prawns, and finished with a lamb paratha. Bittman counter attacked with "Indian-style" stir-fried cauliflower, sautéed okra with shrimp, and a funky tortilla stuffed with mashed potatoes - a kind of simplified aloo paratha - that Suvir called "a knish gong wrong" before telling Bittman it was not unlike a "Frankie," a snack they serve on the streets of Bombay.


MEET THE CHEF Suvir Saran

Suvir Saran

SUVIR SARAN is a native of New Delhi, India who was raised on traditional Indian cooking. He is a passionate and inventive cooking teacher as well as a sort of unofficial ambassador of Indian culture; wherever he goes (in India, Europe and the United States) he finds himself teaching people--colleagues in classes and jobs, strangers in airports and on the street--to love the food and culture of his native country.

SUVIR SARAN is chef (@ Amma, a critically acclaimed restaurant in NYC), cookbook writer (Indian Home Cooking: A Fresh Introduction to Indian Food, With More Than 200 Recipes, Summer 2004, Clarkson Potter), caterer, cooking teacher and food consultant. Suvir studied music, fine arts and graphic design in Bombay and then moved to New York City in 1993 to continue those studies at The School of Visual Arts. In New York he found himself once more assuming his role of cultural ambassador, teaching an appreciation of Indian cooking and culture just as he had done in his elementary school. So when co-workers at Bergdorf Goodman, where he worked as a buyer for home furnishings, took an interest in the foods he was eating, he began bringing food in for them, too. It was for his partner that he first cooked meat. It's success made him try cooking more with meats. Soon, it was the challenge of cooking something without tasting that made him love cooking meats completely. His colleagues and friends fell in love with the food. It was, they said, the best Indian food they had ever eaten: it wasn't too hot; it had a nice balance of spices; it was comforting; the taste was unusually delicate. Inevitably someone asked him to cater a party and then someone else and eventually he gave up his other work and concentrated on catering and teaching Indian cooking.

In 1997 Suvir joined the staff of the Department of Food and Nutrition at New York University's Professional Development and Continuing Education Program where he currently teaches Indian cooking. These classes have been enormously popular and were listed in a recent issue of New York Magazine (Schools for Scampi; September 2000) as the most popular cooking classes offered by New York University. Suvir also made New York Magazine's list of the top forty caterers in the country (Dish on the Top Forty Caterers; February 1999); his orange-mango souffle with candied mango peel and pomegranate seeds was featured on the cover of that issue.

Suvir now owns a catering and consulting business Rasoi, The Indian Kitchen. Rasoi lists among its clients the Asia Society, Carnegie Hall, the World Music Institute and New York University. (Suvir catered an event for the Asia Society in 1997 celebrating India's 50th year of independence from the British for which guests paid several thousand dollars per table.) Suvir's catering and cooking classes have been favorably reviewed in a variety of publications in addition to New York Magazine including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and US News.

Suvir is on the editorial team of Food Arts Magazine as contributing authority for Indian food. His recipes and work have also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and US News World Report. Suvir is chef at Amma restaurant in NYC with Hemant Mathur. With Hemant and Anju Sharma, Saran is hoping to make a small but lasting impression in the world of Indian cuisine in the US. Suvir's book Indian Home Cooking: A Fresh Introduction To Indian Food With More Than 200 Recipes comes out summer of 2004. Indian cuisine is renowned for its exotic aromas and depth of flavor, but when it comes to creating those sophisticated tastes at home, many find the process just too daunting or difficult. In Indian Home Cooking, acclaimed Indian chef and cooking teacher Suvir Saran and food writer Stephanie Lyness unlock the mysteries of Indian cooking, carefully explaining how to create delicious, authentic Indian food without the fuss.