Kumar Mahadevan was raised in a Brahmin family in southern India. He trained as a chef in Madras and later worked at Bombay's Taj Mahal hotel where he gained skills in all aspects of international cuisine. He worked in war-torn Iraq before moving to Australia. Kumar and his wife Suba opened their first restaurant, Abhi's in 1987 and their second, Aki's in Sydney's Woolloomoolloo, in 2003.