Manju Malhi is an British chef and food writer, specialising in Anglo-Indian cuisine. She was raised in North West London where she grew up surrounded by Indian culture, traditions and lifestyles.

She came to prominence in 1999 when she won a competition to find a guest chef for the BBC’s Food and Drink programme and cooked with Antony Worrall Thompson on the show.

What is the Easy Indian Cookbook?
Easy Indian Cookbook is basically what it says on the tin. It’s a spiral bound book of recipes that are simple to follow. It is a book for those who have never dabbled in India cuisine but have wanted to try out and experiment. I have really had to go back to basics with the recipes because the book is also for the American and the Australian market.

In addition, it is also being sold in India where, I have been told, they are in desperate need of further culinary knowledge. It also has a free music CD attached to it in order to make cooking a much more pleasurable experience.

How is this book different from your earlier books
My first book Brit Spice was about using ingredients you would find in your store cupboard and then spicing them up with a few basic spices. My second cookbook India with Passion was focusing on the regional differences of the cuisines of Indian and offering simple recipes to reflect their culinary traditions.

My new book had to be quite straightforward for any novice cook because it was not only being sold in India and the UK but also in the US and Australia amongst other countries.

You’ve just come back from filming for NDTV. What was that about?
I’ve just come back from filming a forty part TV series in Delhi making British cuisine for over 80 million viewers. NDTV is one of the largest channels in India broadcasting globally so the audience was vast and diverse. I had to shoot twelve recipes a day in 48 degrees heat. It was hard work but fun.

It was also very challenging and I wanted to quit on the second day but I am glad I didn’t because they all loved the dishes including fish and chips, mango crumble, the Irish Stew and Shepherds Pie.

Did you face any problems out there in trying to get your audience to watch a cookery programme about British cooking?
This was India’s first major lifestyle channel and it was a gamble for them. But they noticed how food and travel in Europe was a big hit so they thought it should work and it does. People seem to be hungry for recipes and that kind of lifestyle programming.

The series I shot called ‘Cooking Isn’t Rocket Science’ was very different from what the audience had seen in the past. But judging by the emails I receive, they seem to like the programmes and the recipes.

What else are you working on?
I am working on new ideas for my next cookbook and in light of the current economic climate where we are all having to tighten our belts and become more environmentally aware, I am developing programme ideas on appreciating and respecting the food we buy and the food we cook.

Where would you like to go next?
I would like to get a catering van out on the streets of Delhi to sell British cuisine and see if I can cut the mustard with other street food vendors. Now the big question is, do I stand a chance?

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Easy Indian Cookbook is out now.
www.manjumalhi.co.uk