Reza Mahammad’s passion and unstoppable enthusiasm for Indian flavours are irresistible. The charming, flamboyant TV chef and owner of the Star of India restaurant in Kensington, London (Hugh Grant’s favourite restaurant), now brings his flair for evolving the tastes of India to a new book.

Brought up in London, the scion of a family of Indian restaurateurs, educated in India, and with a home in France, Reza is a true global citizen. His unique culinary perspective means he combines familiar western ingredients with Indian flavours to stunning effect, reinventing French, Persian, American and British recipes, though there is also a chapter, of course, of classic curries.

Reza’s food is fresh, healthy and modern. Sweet potato and goat’s cheese samosas are baked, not fried, and served with an Indo-Italian pesto, while a simple roast chicken is transformed by a fruity stuffing and spiced orange marinade and served with fabulous roast chilli and chaat masala potatoes. Reza even gives the Indian treatment to humble beetroot and rhubarb. And don’t forget pudding: white chocolate and cardamom pannacotta, anyone?

With his informal style and free-thinking attitude to food, Reza plays with the spices of India as only a cook with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the country’s authentic food can.