Madhur Jaffrey is an award-winning actress and cookbook author whose legendary career has spanned 40 years. Madhur won Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival for her role in Merchant/Ivory’s first feature film, Shakespearewallah. Her film credits include many Merchant/Ivory films including Cotton Mary and Heat & Dust. She has also starred in Six Degrees of Separation, Flawless, Vanya on 42nd Street, Chutney Popcorn, ABCD, Prime, and Partition. On TV, Jaffrey has appeared in several episodes of Law and Order and as a series regular in The Papdits, a comedy improvisational from the creators of Da Ali G Show and Borat.

Madhur may be most famous for introducing the West to Indian Cookery, as a NY Times Best Selling author of over 20 cookbooks, host of a BBC Cookingshow, and one of the foremost food writers and personalities in the world. Madhur’s debut, an Introduction to Indian Cooking, won the James Beard Foundation Award in 1973 – the first of six James Beard awards she has won for her books on Indian Cooking.