Chef Damodharan Kothandaraman, widely known as Chef Damu, has died in Chennai, India, at the age of 72, prompting tributes from across the country’s culinary and hospitality communities. A chef, educator, author and television personality, he helped bring the food traditions of Tamil Nadu to wider audiences while supporting generations of culinary students and food-service workers.
Chef Damu became familiar to millions of viewers through cooking programs across Tamil television, including his role as a judge on the popular reality show Cooku With Comali. His public profile extended well beyond television: he received the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honors, and earned Guinness World Records recognition for large-scale culinary achievements. He died on October 25, 2026.
One of the most widely recognized achievements of his career came in December 2010, when he prepared 617 dishes in 24 hours, 30 minutes and 12 seconds, using approximately 190 kilograms of food. The feat earned him the Guinness World Record for the longest cooking marathon by an individual. His record-setting work reflected the scale and energy that characterized many of his public culinary demonstrations, but his contribution to food culture was rooted just as strongly in the preservation and teaching of regional cooking.
Born in Tamil Nadu, Damu built his professional foundation through formal hospitality education. He completed a diploma in hotel management and catering technology at the Institute of Hotel Management in Chennai before beginning his career with the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation in 1977. He later earned degrees in commerce and business administration and became one of the country’s prominent chef-educators.
He entered teaching in 1986 and went on to lead several hotel-management institutions in Chennai. His work helped train future hospitality professionals, while his cookbooks made regional recipes and cooking techniques accessible to home cooks. According to the Government of India’s official Padma Awards profile, he authored 17 cookbooks containing approximately 2,700 recipes, alongside books for catering students.
Damu’s commitment to Tamil food extended into public service. He worked with the Tamil Nadu government on improvements to the school mid-day meal program between 2008 and 2011, helping develop a wider variety of dishes for schoolchildren. He also trained approximately 140,000 noon-meal workers across the state’s 32 districts, bringing culinary knowledge into a public nutrition program operating at considerable scale. His work included training cooks in girls’ hostels and supporting the development of food-service skills among local communities.
Tributes from fellow chefs emphasized both his professional influence and his personal warmth. Celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, reflecting on their association, told ET HospitalityWorld: “His passing is a big loss to the industry. He was a great guy. We had worked together on many, many occasions. He was always smiling, always laughing. I will always remember him fondly.”
