Ammini Ramachandran is the founder, writer, and editor of Pepeprtrail.com that she launched in 1999, and the author of Grains, Greens, and Grated Coconuts: Recipes and Remembrances of a Vegetarian Legacy published in 2007.

The website has three distinct parts: Along the Peppertrail introduces the reader to Kerala’s cultural and culinary traditions and history through articles and recipes. Grains, Greens, and Grated Coconuts segment is an overview of her cookbook on Kerala’s vegetarian cuisine, and Treasures from the Past explores India’s ancient culinary history though articles, stories, and recipes.

Grains, Greens, and Grated Coconuts has received many favorable reviews including in the New York Times, the San Francisco Examiner, Globe and Life (Canada), Economic Times (India) and several others. Grains, Greens, and Grated Coconuts was among the four self-published cookbooks that ranked #76 in Saveur’s Tenth Annual 100 List in 2008. Grains, Greens, and Grated Coconuts was the winner of2007 Cordon d’Or International Cookbook Awards.

PRINT & INTERNET MEDIA: Ammini’s recipes appear in The Flavors of Asia published by the Culinary Institute of America. Her recipe for yogurt rice that was in the book review in the New York Times was later published in The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century by Amanda Hesser in 2010. A revised anniversary edition The Essential New York Times Cookbook: The Recipes of Record came out in 2021. Yogurt rice was among the three iconic recipes that the author selected to demonstrate on national television.

Ammini’s articles have appeared in Zester Daily, Flavor & Fortune, Gastronomica, and Heritage India. She has also contributed articles to various other publications and websites.

PUBLIC SPEAKING: She was a presenter at the tenth annual Worlds of Flavor International Conference & Festival – Rise of Asia – presented by The Culinary Institute of America in November 2007. She was a featured presenter for The New York Women’s Culinary Alliance, American Institute of Wine and Food, Dallas, and the Houston Culinary Guild. She was a presenter at the Celebration of our members held by the Culinary Historians of New York.

In May 2021 she was a speaker at Thinnai Kucini: Seeds of Change organized by, Le Thinnai Kreyol, an online cultural platform founded by Ari Gautier, a French Novelist from Pondicherry based Norway and Dr. Ananya Jaharana Kabir, Professor of English Literature at Kings College London, to promotes their shared vision for a plural, multicultural, and creolized India.

In December 2021 she was a speaker at a three day seminar – The Science an Art of Ayurvedic Cuisine organized by Ayurvastu, Indian American School of Ayurveda based in Satiago Chile.

CULINARY EDUCATOR: She has taught Indian cooking classes at Central Market Cooking Schools in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston, Texas; the Institute of Culinary Education, New York and the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Boulder, Colorado.

She holds a diploma in article writing, a B.Sc. in chemistry from Kerala University; and an MBA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Before becoming a freelance food writer, Ammini was a financial analyst in international banking. She lives with her husband in Plano, a suburb of Dallas, Texas.