The series gives us a glimpse into the Wirral-based chef’s farm, where she whips up chicken Dhansak and dahl in her outdoor kitchen, and those cuddly alpacas roam, joined by four horses, two tiny dogs (one is sat beside her during our Zoom chat), guinea fowl, chickens and ducks (“We hatch them from eggs, raise them and they come in the house and hand feed”), and potentially in the future, a miniature donkey, poo dependent.
“I am really pathologically passionate about heralding how brilliant it is beyond the M25,” says Katona, who built her first 23 restaurants outside of London (she now has one in the capital, with another opening soon), in places like Preston, Sheffield, Leicester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow.
Episode one is also packed with tips: swap coriander for lemon zest if someone hates it, freeze ice cube trays of blitzed garlic and ginger to save time, slosh your dahl back into the pan you tempered your spices in “because we literally don’t want to waste one seed”.
“I was very nervous about that because, being on telly, it’s one thing for me who voluntarily does it, but my family being caught on telly, you just don’t know how they’re going to feel about themselves,” says Katona.
If you’ve ever picked up one of Nisha Katona’s cookbooks, or seen her on Great British Menu, you’ll know she’s super glam and super sharp.
