Floyd Cardoz

Indian-American chef

Biography

Floyd Cardoz (Bombay, October 2, 1960 – Montclair, New Jersey, March 25, 2020) was an Indian-born American chef best known for bringing contemporary Indian cooking into New York's fine-dining scene. He won the third season of Top Chef Masters in 2011, and his work is often cited among the reference points for chef-driven Indian cuisine in the United States.

He trained first in his native Mumbai and then in Switzerland, where he broadened his grounding in French and Italian cooking without leaving Indian cuisine behind. He moved to New York in 1988. In 1992 he began working under Gray Kunz at Lespinasse, rising through the kitchen to executive sous chef. In 1997 he joined Union Square Hospitality Group, led by Danny Meyer, and helped open Tabla, which became one of his signature restaurants. Later projects included El Verano Taqueria and North End Grill, and in 2016 he opened Paowalla in SoHo.

His New York restaurants combined Indian flavours and spices with Western techniques. He was a four-time James Beard Award nominee and the author of two cookbooks. At the time of his death he was also a partner in Mumbai ventures such as The Bombay Canteen. He died of COVID-19 at the age of 59, after a week in hospital.

He is often remembered as a figure who helped open high-end Indian cooking to American audiences. He was the first India-born chef to lead the kitchen of a prominent New York City restaurant, and some critics credit him with paving the way for a generation of chef-led Indian restaurants.

Key contributions

Tabla, the New York restaurant where he blended Indian spices with Western techniques
Paowalla, the SoHo restaurant that brought street-style Indian cooking to a fine-dining audience
Flavorwalla: Big Flavor. Bold Spices. A New Way to Cook the Foods You Love, a cookbook adapting Indian cooking for the home kitchen
One Spice, Two Spice: American Food, Indian Flavors, his second book, focused on fusing American cooking with Indian flavours
A line of prepared entrées launched with FreshDirect, bringing his cooking into homes
His Top Chef Masters victory, which raised his profile beyond New York

Trivia

Prize donated. He donated his Top Chef Masters prize money to the Young Scientist Cancer Research Fund at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

First India-born chef in New York. He was the first India-born chef to lead the kitchen of a prominent New York City restaurant. In 2011 GQ named him among the 50 most influential Indians in the world.