Meet the Michelin-trained chef whose cooking bowled over Dame Joanna Lumley and bagged his restaurant a national award.
Chef Ram Paudal, originally from Kathmandu - a Metropolitan city in Nepal - first started working at Panas Gurkha in 2020, when owner Sujan Katuwal was searching for a new head chef.
Chef Ram told News Shopper: “I’ve had a passion for cooking for years, passed onto me from my grandmother and mother and I wanted to share that with the world.
“From 2020 I joined Panas Gurkha, when my dear friend Sujan reached out to me and wanted a new head chef and I was honoured to be involved in his fantastic restaurant.”
Panas Gurkha offers homestyle Nepali cuisine to diners, with its most popular dish the Mum’s Chicken Curry, inspired by a recipe made by restaurant owner Sujan Katuwal’s mother.
The restaurant is one of two branches, with the first in Lee High Road that opened over a decade ago, and the second branch in Chislehurst opening in 2022.
In that time the business has won a number of awards, including the Lee branch winning Best Nepali Restaurant at the Asian Curry Awards 2021 and the Outstanding Achievement Award in 2022, and the Chislehurst branch winning Best Newcomer at the Asian Curry Awards 2023.
The 50-year-old first began his cooking journey in 1998, learning from his grandmother and mother before eventually training under Atul Kochhar, a Michelin-starred chef.
Describing his cuisine, Chef Ram said his food was “homestyle, authentic Nepalese food like my mother used to cook for me”, that offers an “authentic, aromatic and “inspiring” culinary experience to diners.
He added that a lot of his inspiration behind his creations was drawn from his Grandmother and mother, who “poured passion” into their cooking, with one of his favourite dishes to cook lovingly named Mum’s Curry.
However, the chef has also poured his own passion and inspiration into his cooking, creating a unique dish named Jahne komasu, a lamb dish with his own personal take inspired by tapas.
His cooking has also impressed none other than Dame Joanna Lumley, who Ram said “loves” the food at Panas Gurkha and has even been photographed with the chef.
When asked to share his top cooking tip, Chef Ram responded: “Do it from your heart and don’t skimp on your ingredients.”
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