Santosh Shah is an experienced chef who has worked in some of London's best restaurants including Cinnamon Kitchen and Michelin-starred Benares. From growing up in Nepal to winning the nation's hearts as a finalist in 2020's MasterChef: The Professionals, Santosh is putting Nepali cuisine on the map.

This book is well-researched but an exuberant introduction to Nepalese cooking, packed with inspiration for beginners and experienced cooks alike

Written by Santosh Shah, who was a finalist on BBC One's TV show Masterchef: The Professionals and is an experienced chef who has worked in some renowned Indian kitchens, including Vivek Singh's Cinnamon Kitchen where he is head chef

Santosh has a growing social media following with 68K on Instagram, 19.2k on Twitter, and 28.4k subscribers on YouTube

With limited travel opportunities due to lockdown restrictions, armchair travel is on the rise and cookbooks have remained consistently popular over the last year (Google Trends, 2021)

Nepalese cuisine has become significantly more popular in the UK over the last year, with a large increase in searches expected in the future (Google Trends, 2021)

Since March 2019 there has been a significant rise in home-cooking. According to research, 55% of people plan to cook from scratch more since the coronavirus outbreak (Billington group, 2021)

Since lockdown began more people have been experimenting with new flavors to distract from the fact that they can't go to their favorite restaurants (Billington group, 2021).

Recently, many people have sharpened their skills in the kitchen and are looking for culinary challenges to test their new culinary abilities (BBC Good Food, 2021)

"Fakeaway" recipes have proved popular during the pandemic and this trend is thought to last past lockdown restrictions. There has been a huge rise in online searches for takeaway recipes and more people are recreating their favorite takeaway meals at home (BBC Good Food, 2021)

There are not many Nepalese cookbooks on the market - see competition