Mother nurture
Great British Menu judge Nisha Katona chats to LAUREN TAYLOR about why mums make great bosses
Katona never bowed to the expectation put on women with children to be risk-averse – with a huge career shift in her forties, saying she felt a duty to show her daughters “there is nothing you cannot be”.
The TV chef and restaurateur, who opened her first Mowgli eatery 10 years ago, giving up her 20-year-career as a child protection barrister to do so, says “the noise against which I built this business” was other women saying “you need to be there for your children”.
A decade later, she has 21 restaurants across the UK and three more due to open in 2024, alongside a charitable arm, The Mowgli Trust, which has so far donated over £1.6million. The mum-of-two is a judge on BBC’S Great British Menu, a regular on ITV’S This Morning, picked up an MBE in 2019 and has just released her sixth cookbook, Bold.
“Within the four corners of motherhood, there is also a duty to demonstrate that there is nothing you cannot be," she says. “My little, half-brown girls are growing up thinking, ‘she’s on telly as well talking about Italian food’ – that means there’s nothing we cannot attempt at least,” says the 52-yearold, who was born in Ormskirk, Lancashire, to Indian parents.
“Since the dawn of time we [women] have held our heads quite low, we have kept our eyes to the ground, we have been respectful and yielding – the rest of the world could learn from us, really.” But women in their 40s, 50s and beyond have a lot to offer businesses. “Particularly if you’ve had children and you’ve been through the warfare of making them happy, you understand diplomacy like no one else, you understand humility and openmindedness like no one else – the business world needs you,” she adds.
Indeed, Nisha wanted her maternal side to be a big part of Mowgli. Ten years ago, “what you saw on the television was the brutal nature of kitchens and you still see it to an extent – this military, macho way of running a kitchen”.
“I bring a zero tolerance policy to any shouting, bullying or aggression. Any of that testosterone dripping off the walls, I have no time for you, go find SOMENISHA where else to work,” she says.
While her restaurants celebrate homecooked and street food of India, Nisha’s new cookbook is more of a representation of the way she eats at home, while also being inspired by her travels around the world.
It’s classic recipes with an usual twist, think cauliflower and dark chocolate risotto, chicken and banana korma, or anchovy and cheesy pineapple croquetas, alongside puddings like thyme apple tart cake, or Marmite caramel blondies.
“It really is that phrase of ‘just trust me on this’,” she laughs. “Just leading you by the hand into that step of boldness and bravery, really – the way the world cooks” – using whatever is available inside, or growing just outside the front door.
They may feel like usual combinations you’d see at a trendy, high end restaurant menu, but Nisha wants to give people “the courage to use that in a domestic setting”.
The cooking in her own home, a small holding filled with animals on the Wirral, is influenced also by the heritage of her husband, Hungarian classical guitarist Zoltan (of The Katona Twins fame).
From clear soups, to rice pudding made with tagliatelle instead of rice to cabbage parcels, “Eastern European food is extraordinary, I cook Hungarian maybe two or three times a week,” she says.
Her daughters – one who is studying to be a barrister and the other working in the marketing department of her mother’s business – speak the language fluently, as does Nisha, with the household’s third language being Bengali.
“[My] Indian parents came over in the 1960s as doctors and you’re really raised to think you’ve got to work harder than everyone else. I think that’s a real immigrant mentality as well, you’re raised to think if you get a job you’re lucky in this country.
The racism her parents experienced as the only Indian family in the village was “horrendous”, she says, adding:“what it made us do is just desperately yearn to be liked and many cultures would use food to do that. So we feed people. The only reason I’ve got any friends I think is because of garam masala, honestly!”. ■ BOLD: Big Flavour Twists to Classic Dishes by Nisha Katona is published by Nourish Books, priced £30
NOT long ago, few people would have heard of Anne Lister, let alone Shibden Hall where she lived. But the BBC drama Gentleman Jack – which charted Anne’s colourful life – changed all that.
Anne was a shrewd 18th-century businesswoman and landowner who left meticulously kept diaries.
In a bid to conceal her lesbian affairs, some passages were coded. Later cracked, they were used as a basis for Gentleman Jack. After the show – starring Suranne Jones – was televised, visitor numbers to the stately home trebled, creating a mini tourist boom in Halifax, West Yorkshire, where’s it’s located.
Used as a set for some of the series, Shibden Hall is now Grade Ii-listed and a must-see for visitors to Halifax.
Dating back to 1420, it’s beautifully preserved and contains much original furniture including an early flushing toilet installed in 1937 for a visit by King George VI.
Movies Wuthering Heights and Peterloo, plus BBC1 drama To Walk Invisible were also filmed there. In fact filming in Halifax has become so common that locals call it Britain’s answer to Hollywood – or Haliwood.
Samuel L Jackson recorded part of the Marvel TV series Secret Invasion at The Piece Hall in the town. Sarah Lancashire and James Norton used nearby Hebden Bridge for Happy Valley. The recent Full Monty series, starring the original cast, was filmed in the area, as were Channel 4 drama Ackley Bridge and old favourites Last of the Summer Wine, Brassed Off, Red Riding and Last Tango in Halifax.
My partner Tim and I didn’t see any stars while we were there – but we had a ball. We stayed at Shibden Mill Inn, on the outskirts of the town. It was a pleasant 40-minute walk from Shibden Hall.
The 17th century Shibden Mill Inn was originally a corn and spinning mill. After the wool industry declined, it lay dormant, reopening as a pub in 1890. Nowadays it has stylish bedrooms and the feel of a country retreat, with open fires and wood panelling.
But it’s the food that takes centre stage – the restaurant holds two AA rosettes and features in the UK’S Top 50 Gastropubs. For our evening meal we tickled our tastebuds with muffin-like cheddar and ale loaves accompanied by homemade nduja butter.
Our starters were exquisite – smoked haddock, mussels, leek and smoked haddock foam plus raw scallop, jalapeno, granny smith, dill and elderflower.
Tim’s main course of turbot in a creamy sauce came with a bowl of shellfish fondue, while my partridge and haggis pie of the day was smothered in thick gravy and served with chips and hispi cabbage.
Full to the brim, we skipped desserts – and even passed on the home-baked cookies left in the bedrooms each night.
In Halifax the centrepiece is The Piece Hall, the world’s only remaining Georgian cloth trading hall. Opened in 1779, and set around a vast courtyard, this was a sign of the wealth and power of Yorkshire’s cloth manufacturers, who gathered in the hall’s 315 rooms weekly to sell their wares.
By 1868 the traders had left, the once flourishing cottage industries driven out by economic slump and the ease of selling from the gates of newly built factories.
Thanks to a multi-million-pound renovation, the hall’s grandeur can once again be enjoyed.
Now with a Grade I-listing, its old sales rooms have turned into bars, restaurants and small businesses selling everything from soap to vinyl (Heritage tours – £6 adults, under-16s free. thepiecehall.co.uk). Later we enjoyed a meal at The Astronomer, named in celebration of Sir William Herschel who discovered Uranus but doubled as organist at what is now Halifax Minster. (thepiecehall.co.uk/eat-and-drink/ the-astronomer/).
The fun menu has an Asian twist, with dishes created for sharing. We went for tandoori king prawns with a lime and coriander yogurt on a garlic flatbread, Indian fish pakora, seabass with Parmesan and truffle potato, and seared scallops with smoked butternut squash puree.
The food was delightful, as was the service. Halifax’s industrial heritage ripples through the town in other ways. The 22-acre mill complex Dean Clough was once one of the world’s largest carpet factories. Founded in 1803 it employed 5,000 workers. Now it’s Grade Iilisted and houses galleries, a theatre, workshops, businesses, bars and restaurants (deanclough.com).
On our visit we swung by True North restaurant. It does a great value two or three-course menu but we opted to go for the Sunday roast.
Our tender garlic and rosemary lamb rump came with plenty of veg and spuds, plus the biggest Yorkshire puddings I’ve ever seen. It was possibly the best roast dinner we’ve had. (truenorthrestaurant.co.uk)
If you like fab food, captivating countryside and handsome history you’ll be in heaven in Halifax.
Now that’s star quality.
...a Grade I-listing, its old sales rooms have turned into bars, restaurants and small businesses On Piece Hall