New Delhi-born Suvir Saran is chef and owner of the highly acclaimed Dévi restaurant in New York City and the author of the cookbooks American Masala and Indian Home Cooking. Listen in as he conducts a virtual journey through the world’s spice markets, exploring the nuances of spices and their cultural and historical influences on Indian cuisine. Chef Saran also demonstrates how to coax out the essence of spices and how to buy and store spices from cardamom to mustard seeds to turmeric.

Chef Saran is Chairman of Asian Culinary Studies for the World Cuisines Council at The Culinary Institute of America, and he teaches all over the U.S. and beyond. When he is not traveling, he enjoys working on his 68-acre farm in upstate New York.

Recorded Saturday, March 21, 2009 at Ranjana Bhargava Indian Cooking School.