‘I used to be ashamed of curry’: Nisha Katona on identity, acceptance and Britain’s love affair with Indian food

Katona has gone from hiding the smell of curry to making it her life’s work - (Nassima Rothacker)

There was once a time when TV chef and restaurateur Nisha Katona was “ashamed” of curry.

Born to Indian parents who arrived in the UK in the Sixties, Katona remembers being were “pretty much the only Indians” in Ormskirk, Lancashire. “Everything about you was so other and so unfathomable, and so probably unwelcome, really, including the way your food smelt and tasted,” says the chef, who owns the restaurant chain Mowgli Street Food.