Key points:
- Meherwan Irani releases debut cookbook on Sept. 22.
- Called “No. 1 Best Indian Cookbook in the World: At-Home Recipes from the Streets, Truck Stops, Villages, and Palaces of India,” the cookbook features more than 100 recipes.
- Scattered throughout the cookbook are personal essays by Irani
Meherwan Irani has spent years arguing that Indian street food deserves a permanent spot in the American home kitchen. Come September, he’ll have a cookbook to prove it.
On Sept. 22, the James Beard Award-winning chef and restaurateur behind Chai Pani and Botiwalla is set to release “No. 1 Best Indian Cookbook in the World: At-Home Recipes from the Streets, Truck Stops, Villages, and Palaces of India.”
The debut cookbook, co-written with food writer Jamie Feldmar, promises more than 100 recipes drawn from Irani’s childhood, decades of travel through India, and nearly 20 years of running restaurants in Asheville, Charlotte, and Atlanta.
What to expect
The cookbook follows the logic of Indian street eating: chaat, sandwiches and rolls, grilled dishes, and home-style cooking. Standout recipes include corn bhel, a Mumbai-style toastie on white sandwich bread, dhansak (a triple-lentil stew based on Irani’s mother’s recipe), and dosa, which Irani treats as an entry point to Indian food.
The cookbook also makes room for dishes that don’t fit neatly into Western categories: Chinese-Indian stir-fries, roadside canteen stews, and a variety of chutneys that Irani frames as “building blocks.”
Scattered throughout the cookbook are personal essays by Irani, including why naan isn’t a universal accompaniment to Indian food and why, counterintuitively, chai is best made with lower-grade tea leaves.
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About Irani and his restaurants
Irani, who grew up in Ahmednagar and came to the U.S. at 20, has built his career around the idea that Indian food is misunderstood rather than inaccessible. He describes his own cooking philosophy as “stripped down.”
“People expect Indian cooking to be over-the-top exotic and advanced, but I insist in this book that most cooking can be done with one good pot, ladle, and knife,” he said in a statement. “It goes back to the street food hawker’s mentality; his entire menu is coming off of a 2×2 table. I’m going to teach you the efficiency of movement I’ve learned from the streets of India and nearly 20 years of owning restaurants that will make you a better cook.”
Irani, along with his wife and business partner, Molly, own Chai Pani Restaurant Group, which includes locations of Chai Pani in Decatur and Asheville and Botiwalla at Ponce City Market, Asheville, and Charlotte.
Chai Pani-Asheville won “Outstanding Restaurant” at the James Beard Awards in 2022. The Iranis are up for “Outstanding Restaurateur” at the James Beard Awards this year.
Feldmar, the book’s co-author, also collaborated on the James Beard Award-winning “Taste & Technique” and the IACP Award-recognized “Italian American” cookbooks.
“No. 1 Best Indian Cookbook in the World” is available for pre-order now ahead of its Sept. 22 release.
