Beyond greasy gravies: Meet chef Suvir Saran, who introduced refined, light Indian cuisine to New York

Chef Suvir Saran, who once headed the kitchen at Dévi, the first South Asian restaurant in the US to receive a Michelin star, returned to India after spending several years in the Big Apple. He returned for myriad reasons, including health complications, but he’s got reasons to look back at his time there with joy. After all, he is, self-admittedly, the person who introduced Americans to Indian food beyond greasy gravies.

“New Yorkers only knew Indian food as butter chicken and Dal Makhani. It made for a filling and cheap meal but was never perceived as refined,” Saran told a magazine recently. “It was heavy food that made your pores smell like curry. I wanted to alter that idea through fresh ingredients, lighter recipes. So, I cooked the way Indian mothers cook, with things they’d find at home.”

Where did he learn to cook like this? He says it was through the family Maharaj [family chef]. “I was lost, growing up a gay kid in India. The kitchen became my safety cocoon, where I could hide away. I spent so much time with the Maharaj that I learnt cooking hacks by age six,” he said.