Presenter, Author, Founder of Mowgli Street Food and the Mowgli Trust charity
Nisha Katona MBE was born in Ormskirk, Lancashire to Indian parents and worked full-time as a child protection barrister for 20 years on the Northern Circuit.
In 2014, she used all of her savings to found Mowgli Street Food restaurants in the UK growing it to a national chain of 26 restaurants. She also founded and chairs the Mowgli Trust. She selects and supports local cancer charities and children's hospices along with world charities, and has raised almost £3 million to support them. Through the Trust, Nisha is developing 4 schools in her ancestral home of Varanasi, India to further the education and welfare of under-privileged girls. The Trust also funds and sponsors community projects in Rwanda.
Mowgli Street Food was recognised as one of the nation’s fastest growing companies according to The Sunday Times Fast Track 100, and was awarded by them, Best Management Team. Most recently Mowgli was ranked in the Top 25 of the ‘The UK’s Top 100 Best Large Companies to work for’ category at the 2023 Best Companies Awards, as well as being ranked in The Sunday Times 2024 Best Places to Work.
In 2008, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport appointed her a trustee of National Museums Liverpool and in 2009 she was appointed Ambassador for Diversity in Public Appointments by the Cabinet Office.
In July 2021, Katona was selected to join the Hospitality Sector Council, a team of leading industry experts assembled to deliver the government’s Hospitality Strategy.
Katona is the author of seven cookbooks: Pimp My Rice, The Spice Tree, The Mowgli Street Food: Authentic Indian Street Food, The 30-Minute Mowgli, Meat Free Mowgli, Bold and The Curry Bible. She regularly appears on television and radio as an expert on matters relating to business, food and hospitality, including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Food Network, Sky and BBC Radio 4.
On 1 January 2022, Katona was appointed Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University. She is the first alumna of the university to become Chancellor.
In 2019, Katona received an MBE (New Year Honours 2019) for services to the food industry.
Nisha received an MBE in the 2019 New Year Honours List for services in the Food Industry.
She has also worked extensively as a business and food expert on several projects across the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 and Radio 4...
As founder and chair of The Mowgli Trust, the charitable limb of the restaurant, Nisha selects and supports local and world charities by donating over £500k each year.
Nisha films regularly for the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV, including Top of the Shop with Tom Kerridge, Recipes that Made Me, Secret Chef, My Kitchen Rules, My Spice Kitchen, Remarkable Places to Eat with Fred Sirieix, Master Chef, Taste of Italy, Cooking with the Stars, and Great British Menu.
She regularly appears as guest chef on ITV’s This Morning, Sunday Brunch, Lorraine, guest panelist on BBC Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet, and on BBC and Sky News as a guest expert on matters relating to business and hospitality.
