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. He is also co-author of Feast, a treasure trove of time-tested recipes from five decades of quantity cooking, as well as the classic The Higher Taste: A Guide to Gourmet Vegetarian Cooking and a Karma Free Diet.

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.