Meet Rachana

Rachana was born in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, a country that shares borders and culinary traditions with China, Tibet, and India. Rachana’s grandfather worked as an administrator for the king, and when Rachana was just sixteen, she married the grandson of the king’s physician. (He was seventeen, and they’re still married.) 

Throughout Rachana’s years in Nepal, her father oversaw the farming of a family-owned property many miles from Kathmandu. He would send fresh food home from the farm, which her mother and sisters-in-law would cook for her, her six siblings, and thirty to forty-five members of their extended family. 

Rachana loved to cook even at a young age and spent many hours watching her mother in the kitchen—she especially enjoyed learning the recipes that had been passed down to her mother over many generations.

Rachana came to the US in 2006. In addition to working with the League of Kitchens, she does her own private catering. In 2018 she cooked the first-ever Nepalese dinner at the James Beard House, a huge honor for both Rachana and the League of Kitchens. She has two grown daughters, a grown son, and two grandchildren, and lives with her husband and mother-in-law in New Jersey.

Rachana has been featured by The New York Times, The Tiffin Club, Pineapple, Nautilus, Little India, and more.