The Travel Diaries · Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Nisha Katona shares her personal journey from a career as a child protection barrister to becoming the founder of Mogli Street Food and a celebrated food writer. She reflects on her early life experiences, including facing prejudice in a working-class town in the north of England.
“She had this whole former life as a child protection barrister, and then she completely switched gears, becoming the founder of the hugely successful Mogli Street Food restaurant.”
“She became a food writer with several best-selling cookbooks. Her newest release being The Curry Bible, which we talk about today.”
“I was born and brought up in a very working-class town in the north of England called Skelmersdale. And just historically what happened is my parents came over. I'm Indian. And my parents came over, daughters in the 1960s, and the only towns in Britain that would have Indian doctors then were the towns that no white doctor would go and work in.”
“And so my earliest memories were of being sort of firebombed and spat at in the street, you know, you're forged in this crucible of affliction. And you just want people to like you.”