Nita Mehta

Mehta has been called a "Cooking Expert" and "Nutrition Expert" in the media.[7][8] She has authored more than 400 cookbooks of which 6 million copies have been sold worldwide. In 1999, she won the Best Asian Cookbook Award for her book Flavours of Indian Cooking at the World Cookbook Fair in Paris.[6] Other notable books include Indian Cooking With Olive Oil,[8] Vegetarian Chinese,[9] Zero Oil Cooking,[10] Diabetes Delicacies,[11] 101 Recipes for Children,[12] and The Best of Chicken and Paneer.[13] Until recently, cookery shelves in Indian bookstores used to be the monopoly of Mehta along with fellow chef-cum-authors Sanjeev Kapoor and Tarla Dalal. In recent years they have started facing competition from regional authors.[1]

Nita Mehta herself runs a culinary academy known as Nita Mehta Culinary Academy in New Delhi, started in 2001.[14] Apart from the original campus set up by Mehta, the academy runs on a franchise model.[15] Courses include those for fast food, traditional Indian meals, picnic packs, "low-calorie snacks", salads, desserts, chocolates, confectionery as well as "healthy heart" recipes.[4][16] In recent years, the academy has seen a rise in people wanting to learn international cuisines such as Burmese, Lebanese, Japanese and Singaporean according to Mehta.[17] Nita owns a publishing house, SNAB Publishers many of whose books are authored by Nita herself.[18]

In 2012, Mehta turned restaurateur with the launch of her restaurant Kelong at Sarabha Nagar in Ludhiana.[3]

Several banks have chosen Nita Mehta's cooking classes among other events of interest to women to disseminate information related to personal finance, based on a Reserve Bank of India directive in 2004.[19] Panasonic organised an event in Coimbatore in 2004 where Nita Mehta was invited to share recipes for microwave cooking to promote the same.[20] In 2007, Kurkure, a brand of ready-to-eat snacks owned by PepsiCo ran a recipe contest which was judged by Nita Mehta.[21] In 2010, Mehta was roped in by Hamdard Laboratories to create new mocktail and dessert recipes for Rooh Afza, their all season summer drink, which were used in a new marketing campaign.[22] Also in 2010, Step by Step a school in Panchsheel Colony, New Delhi consulted Mehta who provided a menu which was handed over to parents as a guide to food which should be packed for students going to the school.[23] Nita Mehta has judged several cooking contests, such as Mallika-e-Kitchen 2011 which culminated at JW Marriott in Chandigarh.[24] Later in 2011, Mehta appeared on the television cooking contest MasterChef India as a judge.[5]