AUTHORS

KURMA DASA

Kurma dasa met the devotees in his last year of high school in 1970. Shortly after, he joined the Sydney Hare Krishna Temple where he became a disciple of Srila Prabhupada. He began his kitchen life cooking for Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha in Sydney, and for Sri Sri Radha Vallabha in Melbourne.

He was head chef at Gopal’s Restaurant in Melbourne for 10 years, where he honed his cookery and teaching skills. Kurma is the author of Great Vegetarian Dishes, Cooking with Kurma, Quick Vegetarian Dishes, and Vegetarian World Food, with editions in Hungarian, German, Italian and Farsi. He also published his biographical work on the life of Srila Prabhupada, The Great Transcendental Adventure.

In 1982, Kurma began hosting three internationally-broadcast television cooking series seen in over 46 countries. Between 1989 and 2015, Kurma presented over 2,500 workshops, classes and masterclasses at hundreds of venues, including culinary institutes, cookery schools, summer schools, yoga ashrams, temples, restaurants, retreats, private homes, universities and tertiary colleges around the world. Additionally, he cooked the famous Sunday Feast in Melbourne’s Hare Krishna Temple almost every Sunday for over 15 years.

He currently resides with his wife Dhira Lalita devi dasi in the Republic of Ireland, where he grows vegetables and flowers, cooks for Krishna, writes, and studies Srila Prabhupada’s books.

Contact Kurma

 

GOPATI DASA


Gopati dasa joined the Cleveland temple toward the end of 1972 following his older brother Jagadisvara dasa. After six months washing pots and prepping, he took the helm of the Cleveland temple kitchen. In 1975, he learned from Ananda Prabhu while preparing Raj Bhog offerings for Krishna-Balarama. After many months, Gopati returned to the USA, cooking in Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago.

Gopati participated in many celebrated ISKCON Deity installations, notably Radha Kunjabehari in Detroit, Kishora Kishori in Chicago, Radha Muralidhara in Cleveland, Krishna-Balarama Mandir in Vrindavan and Radha Manohar in Montreal. Additionally, he was a collaborator in numerous Janmastami, Gour Purnima, Rathayatra and Mayapur-Vrindavan festivals while also managing daily prasadam and feast programs. He ran Govinda’s restaurant on East 55th in NYC and did diplomatic entertaining with Kirtiraja dasa in Washington DC, at the same time operating a prasadam catering business with Alankara dasa. He designed the kitchen and created the first menu for the Devasadhana restaurant in the Detroit temple and spent a year in Montreal operating Chez Govinda’s restaurant.

For 20 years Gopati was chef and owner of an award-winning vegetarian restaurant in the Detroit area. Later, he became an author and vegan blogger in San Diego, focused on organic foods in farmers market economies. Since then, he has been a plant-based food expert in the world of consumer packaged goods. Gopati dasa currently resides in the Detroit area, works as a consultant and meditates on cooking for Krishna.

Contact Gopati



APURVA DASA

In May of 1971, Apurva dasa visited his brother, Yogendra dasa at the Brooklyn Henry Street during his summer break from the University of Denver. After staying in the brahmacari asrama for about 10 days, he went home to Tappan, New York to dispose of his possessions and tie up loose ends. He returned to join the asrama.

After accepting initiation in January 1972, Apurva learned how to cook, primarily from Bhadra dasi, Harikesa dasa, Nanda Kishor dasa, Mangalananda dasa, and Visnu Gada dasa. He has served as cook at ISKCON Brooklyn, Puerto Rico, the Radha Damodar traveling bus party, in Vrindavan, at Prabhupada Village and Hillsborough, NC.

Apurva has worked as head chef at devotee restaurants in Manhattan, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, East Lansing, Dallas, Chapel Hill, Denver, and Greensboro – owning some of them.

He is married to lifelong book distributor Kamalini devi dasi. They live in Hillsborough, NC, near the New Goloka temple where he works on perfecting recipes, catering, and hosting a monthly community dinner. His latest passion is studying Ayurvedic cooking and testing new Ayurvedic recipes.