Taste the World!

Back by popular demand, this year’s Mela will feature a global cookery theatre taking you on a food journey around the world. We proudly welcome back top Indian celebrity chef Manju Malhi following her sell-out demostrations last year. The theatre will also host chefs from Zen restaurant aswell as Caribbean cooking from local food company Windrush Cuisine.

Calling all food culture seekers, do not miss the Mela’s exciting ‘Taste the World’ cookery theatre hosting demostrations throughout event from Indian, Japan and the Caribbean!

Manju Malhi was raised in North West London where she grew up surrounded by Indian culture, traditions and lifestyles. She comes from a non-conformist Asian family. Her parents moved to England in the late sixties at a time when things were tough, not only for the host community but for people who were coming from the Indian sub-continent in search of a better life. Her mother recalls the days when all her parents could afford to eat was tomato ketchup for a meal!  But Manju was born in a loving family who tried to give her everything. As an Asian girl growing up in West London, she was bullied at school and sought solace in cooking which she learnt from her mother. She spent several years of her childhood in India where she explored and experienced the vast and varied cuisines of the country. In her cooking, she draws up on her past and combines it with the realities of urban Western life and has come up with her own unique Brit-Indi style of food. It’s easy Indian homecooking. She won the BBC’s Food and Drink competition in 1999 and cooked with Antony Worrall Thompson on BBC2, and was invited back a second time.

Anju’s Simply Indian series was aired on the Taste Network in 2001. She has also appeared amongst several other programmes, on ITV’s Saturday Cooks and This Morning, Channel 5’s Open House and The Terry and Gaby Show, Sky One’s Taste, UKTV Food’s Great Food Live, Food Uncut and Market Kitchen and BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen.

Her foray into the world of the gogglebox has taken her to India for a forty part series entitled ‘Cooking Isn’t Rocket Science’ for one of India’s leading broadcasters NDTV. She was preparing British cuisine for India – a reverse of what she is generally known for in the United Kingdom! This has led to a demand from publishers to come up with a British cookbook for India which she is currently working on.

Admission to this area of the Mela is £5 and includes a full cookery demostration, food tasting and refreshments. To book your tickets please call ArtsEkta on 028 90231 381.