Mallika Basu - About me

About me

I’m a food and drink industry commentator, food entrepreneur, cookbook author and communications consultant to food, drink and destinations. I co-founded SIZL Spices, a heady and high-quality range of spices for passionate home cooks. The author of two cookbooks – Miss Masala: Real Indian Cooking for Busy Living (Harper Collins) and Masala: Indian cooking for Modern Living (Bloomsbury). I also write recipes and comment for the London Evening Standard.

Born in Kolkata, India, I arrived in England from a high-profile political family for a Business Studies undergraduate degree not knowing how to boil an egg. My mother dispatched me from home with the recipe for one chicken curry and one dal. I taught myself how to cook during my Master’s degree in Journalism. After a brief stint in financial journalism I moved into the communications industry, advising companies on their marketing, branding and reputation management while documenting my busy professional, social life and kitchen trials on a food blog. The blog led to my first book.

Since then, I climbed the greasy corporate pole to become Managing Director at a global communication consultancy, while enjoying opportunities to showcase my quick and simple style of cooking for other busy people on Jamie Oliver’s YouTube Channel and Madhur Jaffrey’s Curry Nation TV programme. My second cookbook Masala launched in 2018 and since then, I have been a Food Pioneer for the British Government, featured as a finale judge for The Guild of Fine Food Awards, run Food Writing courses for the British Library, commented about spice myths, portfolio careers, trendy turmeric, cultural appropriation and more across a wide range of media and events.

I now combine 20 years of experience in the communication industry and my personal passion for the food, drink and hospitality sectors to build SIZL Spices, and run a communications consultancy for brands and companies. When I’m not working, I can be found being bossed around by my two children, or out and about eating for England and drinking gin cocktails with my colourful friends.

My TV agent is Hilary Murray, who can be contacted at hilary@arlingtontalent.com

I’d love to hear from you…

…if you have a query, comment or feedback. Email me at mallika[at]quickindiancooking[dot]com. Or follow me on Twitter/Instagram

However, please note that I do not do product reviews, offer guest posts or advertising on this site, join any platforms, and travel overseas for PR events.