More than 6,500 people have learned how to cook Indian dishes in the Prairie Village home of Jyoti Mukharji.
Mukharji, who hosted her first-ever in-home cooking class nearly 16 years ago, teaches up to 15 students per class.
“It was like I had achieved nirvana,” Mukharji said about her first-ever cooking class in February 2010. “My passion to cook, as a mother, my passion to teach as a little girl, just came together.”
About 10 years ago, Mukharji’s students asked her to write a cookbook. She tossed the idea along to her middle son, Auyon, who is her co-author.
Now, after eight years of recipe testing and writing, the mother-son duo completed their first book tour for “Heartland Masala: An Indian Cookbook from an American Kitchen” and are about to embark on their second.
“A beautiful gift to my students”
When Mukharji teaches a cooking lesson in her home, students receive roughly 80% of the recipe — storytelling, laughter and fun fill the remaining 20% as Mukharji walks students through the recipes.
With “Heartland Masala,” Mukharji and Auyon guide their culinary students through the recipes.
“The relationship between the book and my mom’s classes, I think, is not dissimilar from going to see a band live and their album,” Auyon said. “You might’ve heard the song live a few times. You are going to get a different experience from hearing the album.”
There are numerous visuals and time cues for each recipe to ensure folks understand what they’re looking for, Mukharji said.
This hand holding approach proved to be successful as the pair heard from chefs and cooks on tour who “nailed” recipes from “Heartland Masala,” Mukharji said.
There are 99 Indian recipes in the cookbook, all of which went through about five recipe tests.
“I think it’s a beautiful gift to my students who encouraged me to do it,” Mukharji said.
The mother-son duo traveled the nation together
After years of working on the cookbook together, Mukharji and Auyon officially published “Heartland Masala” in September 2025.
Over the fall, Mukharji and Auyon embarked on a two-and-a-half-month book tour across the United States.
Their mother-son relationship aged several decades as a result of writing the cookbook and then going on the tour, Auyon said.
As a musician with the band Darlingside, touring is nothing new for Auyon. But touring with his mother brought a different perspective.
Auyon and Mukharji agreed that to travel the country just the two of them was one of the most rewarding parts of the entire cookbook process.
“I don’t think we would ever have done it otherwise, just the two of us? I don’t think so,” Mukharji said. “I just think it gave us such a beautiful perspective of each other.”
The cookbook itself involved more of the family, with the artwork of Mukharji’s husband, Jhulan, and her youngest son, Aroop. Her oldest son, Arnob, is Mukharji’s shopping deputy for her cooking classes.
More single-week book tours are in the works
This year, the pair plans to embark on another round of book tours — three separate weeks, in fact.
As Mukharji gets back to what started it all, cooking lessons in her Prairie Village home, she said she is ready to write a second cookbook.
“I’m excited for her to find her next co-author,” Auyon joked. “It’s gonna be a lovely, patient person.”
For Auyon, another cookbook with his mom is not off the table, though he said he does want to explore other interests — namely, as a cookbook doula or consultant.
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