Heartland Masala
An Indian Cookbook from an American Kitchen
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Sep 9, 2025
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
Heartland Masala pairs 99 recipes from Indian cooking instructor Jyoti Mukharji with cultural and historical essays by her son Auyon Mukharji. A heartfelt celebration of Indian cuisine and the American immigrant experience, this beautiful cookbook is playful, informative, and utterly original.
Take a delicious deep dive into Indian cooking and culture with a Midwestern mother-son duo.
Jyoti Mukharji has been teaching cooking classes out of her Kansas City kitchen since 2010. Heartland Masala is an artfully photographed collection of her favorite recipes, enriched with droll, illustrated vignettes authored by culinary historian Auyon Mukharji.
Inside you'll find restaurant staples like Saag Paneer, regional specialties like Murgh Rezala (Chicken Curry with Water Lily Seeds and Cashews), and creative originals like Masala Brussels Sprouts. A feast for culturally curious readers and adventurous cooks alike, this inventive collaboration is unlike any Indian cookbook you’ve seen before.
Take a delicious deep dive into Indian cooking and culture with a Midwestern mother-son duo.
Jyoti Mukharji has been teaching cooking classes out of her Kansas City kitchen since 2010. Heartland Masala is an artfully photographed collection of her favorite recipes, enriched with droll, illustrated vignettes authored by culinary historian Auyon Mukharji.
Inside you'll find restaurant staples like Saag Paneer, regional specialties like Murgh Rezala (Chicken Curry with Water Lily Seeds and Cashews), and creative originals like Masala Brussels Sprouts. A feast for culturally curious readers and adventurous cooks alike, this inventive collaboration is unlike any Indian cookbook you’ve seen before.
Product Details
| Publisher | The Collective Book Studio |
| Publish Date | September 09, 2025 |
| Pages | 288 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Hardback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781685553289 |
| Dimensions | 254.0 X 203.2 X 0.0 mm | 785.2 g |
About the Author
Jyoti Mukharji is a chef, teacher, and retired physician. She immigrated to the US from India in the late 1970s, and she began teaching weekly Indian cooking classes out of her home in Prairie Village, KS in 2010. Jyoti has since welcomed several thousand students into her kitchen, and her writing and teaching have been celebrated in press and radio outlets across the Midwest. Jyoti's team includes her husband Jhulan (art director), her eldest son Arnob (grocery shopping deputy), her middle son Auyon (musical guest), and her youngest son Aroop (copy editor).
Auyon Mukharji is a musician, writer, and culinary historian who spends most of his time thinking about food. He studied biology at Williams College and was awarded a Watson Fellowship in 2007 to study self-expression in folk music. Since 2009, Auyon has toured with, and cooked for, the acclaimed indie-folk band Darlingside. He otherwise finds time to work in and around kitchens (and farms) in both his hometown of Kansas City and his adopted state-of-residence of Massachusetts.
Olivier Kugler is a German-born London-based editorial illustrator and visual journalist. He has travelled to Iran, Laos, Iraqi Kurdistan, Cairo, Ghana and many other places on assignment for a variety of publications including The Guardian, New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, French journal XXI and German GQ. He has done extensive reporting on Middle Eastern refugees in Europe and a book collecting this work called Dem Krieg Entronnen was published in German by Edition Moderne – and in the UK and North America as Escaping Wars and Waves. The book has won two major European design and illustration awards. Oli is also a past winner of a V&A Illustration Award and World Illustration Award. You can visit his portfolio at www.olivierkugler.com.
Kevin Miyazaki’s food, interior and travel assignments have taken him to 23 countries and 37 states. His passion is shooting cookbooks, and he loves the unique collaboration involved with each project. His publishing clients include Collective Book Studio, Knopf, Clarkson Potter, Rizzoli, House Beautiful, Smithsonian and The New York Times. Kevin is a past IACP finalist and a member of Diversify Photo.
Reviews
"Heartland Masala is so friendly and personal, written with so much thought and care, it’s so current – it’s so fresh that I want to say it points cookbooks in a new direction, although I’m not sure any other can quite follow in its footsteps."
“Heartland Masala is one of those rare books on food that can keep you enthralled far into the night... Not only is this book fun to read and to anticipate cooking from, it’s a valuable cross-cultural document.”
"Heartland Masala, which has its origins in the kitchen of a family from the borderlands between Punjab, Bengal and Kansas, is the best introduction to Indian cooking that I have read in a while; both emerging from the Mukharji family's background and not bounded by it. The recipes, which represent many different regions of India, come steeped in the flexible ethos of Indian home cooking and with clear instructions that will help even the most nervous cook adapt to it... the writing is always engaging and the book a true pleasure to read."
“Heartland Masala is an approachable creative, informative, and flat-out fun look at a rich array of regional Indian dishes. Whether it's the classics or new interpretations, Jyoti and Auyon Mukharji make any cook feel right at home in their kitchen.”
“Heartland Masala is a joyous ode to Indian food and to the immigrant experience in America... With recipes ranging from entry-level to advanced, there’s something for everyone in this book.”
"...evocative illustrations and photographs make Heartland Masala a feast for the eyes as well as the palate—a vibrant mother-son collaboration that bridges continents and generations."
“A must-have for home cooks who love bold spices, tips and tricks to make cooking less stressful, and a touch of history!”
"South Asian cookbooks have long trodden the line of having to inform and educate an unfamiliar reader; saddled with the burden of having to convince a world that sees peoples’ worth through their offerings in cuisine. Heartland Masala defies this entirely, presenting precise, fun, and delicious recipes that do not bind themselves within a single tradition or one-dimensional aspiration."
“Authentically delicious, and deliciously authentic.”
“I defy you to find another Indian cookbook that gets it right on all counts: food that promises to taste like it came from a home kitchen, excellent technique advice for the uninitiated, gorgeous artwork, and that warm fuzzy feeling that a cookbook should leave you with.”
“Heartland Masala is one of those rare books on food that can keep you enthralled far into the night... Not only is this book fun to read and to anticipate cooking from, it’s a valuable cross-cultural document.”
"Heartland Masala, which has its origins in the kitchen of a family from the borderlands between Punjab, Bengal and Kansas, is the best introduction to Indian cooking that I have read in a while; both emerging from the Mukharji family's background and not bounded by it. The recipes, which represent many different regions of India, come steeped in the flexible ethos of Indian home cooking and with clear instructions that will help even the most nervous cook adapt to it... the writing is always engaging and the book a true pleasure to read."
“Heartland Masala is an approachable creative, informative, and flat-out fun look at a rich array of regional Indian dishes. Whether it's the classics or new interpretations, Jyoti and Auyon Mukharji make any cook feel right at home in their kitchen.”
“Heartland Masala is a joyous ode to Indian food and to the immigrant experience in America... With recipes ranging from entry-level to advanced, there’s something for everyone in this book.”
"...evocative illustrations and photographs make Heartland Masala a feast for the eyes as well as the palate—a vibrant mother-son collaboration that bridges continents and generations."
“A must-have for home cooks who love bold spices, tips and tricks to make cooking less stressful, and a touch of history!”
"South Asian cookbooks have long trodden the line of having to inform and educate an unfamiliar reader; saddled with the burden of having to convince a world that sees peoples’ worth through their offerings in cuisine. Heartland Masala defies this entirely, presenting precise, fun, and delicious recipes that do not bind themselves within a single tradition or one-dimensional aspiration."
“Authentically delicious, and deliciously authentic.”
“I defy you to find another Indian cookbook that gets it right on all counts: food that promises to taste like it came from a home kitchen, excellent technique advice for the uninitiated, gorgeous artwork, and that warm fuzzy feeling that a cookbook should leave you with.”
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