Katona’s Mowgli Street Food will make London debut
ASIAN chef-restaurateur Nisha Katona will bring her successful Mowgli Street Food concept to the heart of London.
The capital will become the latest addition to Katona’s fastexpanding brand by mid-November, following successful ventures in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Oxford, Nottingham, Sheffield, Cardiff, Leicester, Leeds, and Cheltenham.
“Mowgli is all about how Indians eat at home and on their streets,” Katona said.
“She (Mowgli) was born to feed the raw need Indians have for tiffins full of fresh bright intense flavour. Mowgli is not about the intimate, hushed dining experience. It is about the smash and grab zing of healthy, light, virtuosic herbs and spices.”
Next year, there are plans for Mowgli Street Food to open branches in Bristol and Glasgow.
Katona gave up a 20-year career as a full-time barrister to build Mowgli and in 2019, she was honoured with an MBE in the New Year Honours list for services to the food industry.
“We need to be attractive to our domestic work force. We must build businesses that keep our people purposefully nourished and fulfilled,” Katona added. “Let us not pretend it is anything other than Brexit that has left us in this predicament and there is hence an urgent need to ensure those Europeans who would still want to work in the UK can do so legally and timeously.”
Katona was recently named among 20 hospitality industry experts on a new UK government council set up to help with the country’s restaurants and cafes with their post-Covid recovery.
She joined the Hospitality Sector
Council to help identify and oversee actions related to the government’s Hospitality Strategy. “The aim is to build a financially stable dynamic innovative green sector that supports jobs, vibrant communities and creates places where people want to live, work and visit,” she said.
“I have full hope that the industry will bounce back as consumer confidence and zeal is at such a high point. People have missed the lights of hospitality on the high street and cherish the role of restaurants now more than ever,” she added.