Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. A lot of times, food-related celebrities

get to where they are by being an ambassador, whether it be for a dish or ingredient or region

of cuisine, whatever, because so often food has all this history behind it that you could spend

an entire lifetime teaching people. Today, we've got two writers

on opposite end of that career. In a bit, we'll hear from someone who got famous on TikTok

for explaining what goes into chai. But first, Raghvan Ayer was known for making Indian food

accessible to Americans. His last book was called On the Curry Trail from 2023 about the history and beauty of curry.

It was his last book because he died shortly after for reasons you'll hear about in a bit.

Because he talked to MPR's R. Shapiro about the book, about his life in food,

and about learning to cook and eat and live again after coming to terms with his mortality.

That's ahead.

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There are certain people who can take credit for helping Americans get to know a particular cuisine. For French food,

Julia Child, Italian, Marcella Hazan. Well, for many years, working from his home in Minnesota,

Raghavan Eyre has been one of the people who played that role for Indian food in the U.S.

Here he was on all things considered a decade ago.

To me, that's the hallmark of Indian cooking, is how you could extract a multitude of

flavors by using really one or two ingredients, and you can end up with something that really

sings in your mouth.

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