Mridula Baljekar

Mridula Baljekar

Award-winning cookery writer, Mridula Baljekar is the best-selling author of many Indian cookery books.  She was born and raised in Assam, in North East India and when she moved to England she turned her childhood passion for cooking into a highly successful career.  Her first book, The Complete Indian Cookbook, was published in 1990 and sold over a million copies worldwide.

Mridula since wrote 25 cookbooks and one of them, Great Indian Feasts, was awarded both ‘The Best Asian Cookbook in the World’ by the prestigious Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, and Cookery Book of the Year in 2006. Her latest books, Regional Cooking of India and Vegetarian Cooking of India were published in 2010 and Food and Cooking of India is due to be published in November 2011.

Mridula hosted her own television series for Carlton Food Network, Mridula’s Indian Kitchen and the Spice Trail.  She hit the headlines in the 1990s as the ‘cook who spiced up a superstore’ when she stepped in as the consultant to Tesco, the largest supermarket chain in the UK and turned around their ready meals. 

 Mridula’s food is described in the media as ‘Heaven on Earth for the senses’. Her food attracted the attention of politicians and celebrities alike.  She cooked for Tony and Cherie Blair at No. 10 Downing Street and cooked Sunday lunch for Lord Bath, at his stately home, Longleat.  However, that was not the only encounter with Royalty for Mridula.  She was presented to HRH the Prince of Wales when she was judging a cookery competition at the Royal Military Academy. Mridula also cooked for a private dinner party for Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger.

Mridula provides consultancy services to Mango Lounge Indian restaurant, in Windsor, opposite Windsor Castle.  Since her involvement in the restaurant, it has won several awards and most recently, the restaurant was placed among the top 30 out of 9,000 Indian restaurants in the UK.  Mridula is also a consultant to an upmarket Indian food outlet soon to open in Dubai.

Mridula recently launched her own product range which is a selection of

gourmet chutneys based on seasonal fruit and vegetables.  The range has no artificial additives, colours or  preservatives and is known as ‘Mridula’s Pure and Fresh’.  They are being sold in selected London Farmers’ Markets and exclusive deli shops around the UK. Mridula is hoping to put the range on the shelves of a supermarket soon.