Nisha is a culinary maverick and judge on the BBC’s upcoming cooking series: Best in Shop. The first ever female South-Asian barrister to practice in Liverpool, the charismatic chef has just continued to break down barriers, both professionally and socially:“the Mowgli Street Food team and I recently took home the Emerging Concept Award at the Retailers’ Retail Awards,” she told us, “which is voted on by other professionals in the industry. It was incredible to not only be recognised for our signature home-style cooking, but also as northern restaurateurs in a largely commercial, London-based circle!” Nisha’s first serious foray into the colourful world of Indian cooking happened on YouTube, now with an international following, where she set up a channel to educate people of ancient familial recipes, with her modern playful twists. “I believe that we need to preserve the recipes of first generation Indians, or you lose the taste of say, your mum’s yummy dahl. It’s that tangible feeling of being at home with home-cooking that really matters. For example, I might add some dry plums to my dad’s lamb curry, but the central component remains the same.” So, Nisha’s nation-wide progress shows us, great worldly cuisine always has an inclusive, bubbly quality. “It was at the age of 8 that I got my first pan,” she continued. “I was cooking very early on,” quite literally with gas. “South Asian families do to tend to be more relaxed too, so I was allowed to explore the kitchen much more freely. That expression of love for people through cooking always drives me.” Indeed, today with thriving restaurants in Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, and soon to be opened in Oxford, the Mowgli Street Food ethos of “being your Indian family down the street,” is slowly but sincerely inching the franchise into the mainstream and big metropolis.
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“When something is your passion, you have to do it or you just can’t sleep,” Nisha commented. “Because I’ve been so successful as a lawyer, people sometimes think there’s a compulsive element to my current successes, but my love for cooking is entirely real and uncalculated. I gave up a steady salary just to pursue it.” After the online portals, cook-books – her new recipe collection dubbed, Mowgli: Stories and Recipes from the Mowgli Street Food Restaurants – Nisha has had yet more affection to give. “Having two daughters of my own, I also look after my team as if they were my own. I champion the ideals of grace, intelligence and grasp in the kitchen. I don’t believe that moving forward in the industry has to be all aggressive attitude, as with some celebrity chefs. You simply have to be attentive and invested.” However, as the name of Nisha’s franchise itself indicates, Mowgli dishes go beyond timeless and virtuous cooking to being ageless and also representing an impartial truth outside of the chef kingdom. “Mowgli is obviously the onomatopoeic name for a feral child,” Nisha elaborated, and part of her love for her fast-approaching television show, Best in Shop, is “the opportunity it provides for families to put forward their recipes, to show their particular heritage to the world. It especially allows older women to forge a new life based on their passions. It’s not just a competition but also informative and inspiring and chocked full of amazing personalities.” As with her own multi-faceted career, Nisha then shows that “age and wisdom is just as valuable a skill. There’s a hard, deep affinity with what you’re doing. You don’t always have to be a generation x hipster to be a successful entrepreneur.” Thus, through her humour, smarts, and the vibrancy of her professional medium, Nisha at once demonstrates that what is for you a source of life, will be what opens it up. Spiritedly handling your hunger for a dream is what propels one through any, or a diverse, vocation. However, and whenever, you should choose to start.
What is your main goal with Mowgli home-cooked food?
To provide people with good quality, flavoursome and affordable recipes and dishes. Throughout my previous legal career, if I had money to spend, it’d go on food!
Tell us more about your personal mood in the Mowgli kitchens?
As I say, I possesses a maternal model and loving approach in the kitchen. There is zero tolerance for lack of respect. I bring what I can as a mother and woman to the business world. For example, even when I was working as a barrister, I found that some women tried to ape the angry masculine approach. Whether or not you’d like to see it as biological or socially learnt, woman do have access to different skill sets, and that can work positively for them, across all industries.
How have your skills as a barrister served you in the culinary world?
I can talk well and take risks. I could strongly articulate my passion about Mowgli as a business and had the guts to see it through.
Your dishes are simple but creative: is it that the flavour being pure, while the spices and tweaks make it imaginative?
Yes, completely. My first cook books were actually called, Pimp My Rice and The Spice Tree. I’m from a Bengali background too so we don’t use onions and garlic. We’re simpler. But within that simple creativity are layers of flavour as if fugues on the piano.
Many of your dishes are vegan. That’s very much on the pulse of society.
My father was Brahmin, Hindu so simplicity very organically came into the food. There were many strictures on the way we cooked. Just simple twists such as cumin seeds and lemon juice or a little bit of chilli. For example, my dish, Calcutta Tangled Greens, involves frying up some healthy cabbage.
As a South-Asian cook, I can do wonders with basic British ingredients such as potatoes and leeks. All vegetables, really!
What else do you love about cooking?
It’s a good way to meet and make friends. It’s incredibly creative: every time you cook, it’s a little different. When I travel the world, I look for cardinal ingredients that constitute a national cuisine. There’s whole worlds to explore.
Who are some culinary influences?
As an Indian, my passion is hugely determined by family. I do love cookery programs and books, but if you speak to anyone from a South-Asian background, they’ll be most influenced by immediate family.
Finally, what’s some advice for cooks starting out?
Don’t think the world owes you. Be honest and unique. Look at the market and see where you can cook into the gaps: it’s crowded, and unless you have an idea that you’re salivating over, no one else will. Check yourself for originality. You’re only as good as your last dish.
