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Confession time: I am addicted to ‘MasterChef The Professionals’. How addicted? Well, during lockdown I emailed the BBC to ask if they could send me all the series that are no longer hosted on the iPlayer. I explained that I had watched them all but wanted, needed, to see them again. Could they burn it all onto a DVD for me? The lady who replied humoured me for a bit, but I never received my DVD. I think she felt sorry for me.
Santosh Shah is my favourite ever MTP contestant by quite some margin. And I’ve seen hundreds of them come and go. Former head chef at Vivek Singh's Cinnamon Kitchen, Santosh moved to India aged 14 from the Nepalese village of Karjanha, and has spent basically every day since grafting in a kitchen.
If you watched last year’s ‘MasterChef The Professionals’ you’ll remember three things about Santosh. One: he was extremely fucking good at cooking. Two: he was proud of his Nepalese heritage and wanted London diners to experience his homeland’s food culture. Three: he was possibly the most positive and sweet-natured person to ever appear on British television. Seriously, he makes Lorraine Kelly look like Nurse Ratched. No mean feat when you consider that the chef was projecting that aura of supreme niceness while also preparing eight-course banquets and artisanal French patisserie.
Despite narrowly missing out on winning the top spot, his character and exciting creations impressed judges and the hearts of the nation (including my own). The spice-loving Santosh plans to showcase his home country’s cuisine to the world with his pop-up series running next month. And I for one, cannot wait to jump on this culinary journey through the Himalayas.
‘Having spent many happy years as Head Chef at Cinnamon Kitchen City, there was only one that I place wanted to run this pop-up, at the restaurant where I learnt so much,’ he says. ‘It was [executive chef and CEO] Vivek and his team who gave me the confidence to start celebrating and developing my own signature style of modern Nepalese cuisine, and cooking at Cinnamon Kitchen City feels like coming home.’
The pop up serves just 15 guests each time, sat around Cinnamon Kitchen’s open-plan kitchen counter. The menu is comprised of a 15-course taster menu featuring duck breast salad, lamb brain donuts, authentic steamed Nepalese dumplings with pickled cucumber and caviar and traditional dishes like market-style fried fish with burnet tomato chutney and cannon of lamb with akoru rice, bone marrow sauce and mustard greens.
Santosh’s pop up will run Wednesday to Sunday, weekly, from September 20. The 15-course menu is £75 per person. Will I be there? Yes I will. Find out more here.
Cinnamon Kitchen, 9 Devonshire Square, London EC2M 4YL.
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