Nishat Cooks: Meet LIDo’s PhD Food influencer

From the mystic chamber of experiments and analysis to a gourmet diner, reviewing tantalising and delicious cuisines from some of the best restaurants in London, Nishat has managed to combine her two passions, science and food into academic success and entrepreneurship.

"I’ve been into cooking since I was a child. My mum would send me to the shop to buy ingredients. I used to binge watching cooking videos and when it came to Eid (Mubarak), I would make samosas with my older sisters and cousins.’

'By the time I got to University I already knew how to cook well. I’d even get offers from other students offering to pay me to cook for them."

Within just 4 years, Nishat's social media channels have accumulated over 12Million views and over 7Million likes, gathering an audience of 318K followers on Tiktok and 175k on Instagram.

Nishat's specialties include traditional Bengali dishes, juicy mutton curries, fantastic fish and succulent roast dinners. Meals aren’t exclusively poultry based either, Nishat also makes vegan and vegetarian plates such as saag & paneer curries, scratch made pizzas and spiced rice, pastas and potatoes. Desserts are also very much on the menu. Pistachio and white chocolate cookie dough with pistachio cream filling, raspberry and strawberry milk cake, chocolate mousse truffles and snickers cheesecake are all on the specials board. 

Nishat said: "During lockdown I made my first video on TIKTOK which was me baking brownies and it went viral. I started gaining a lot of followers and after about 3months, TIKTOK themselves contacted me, brought me to their headquarters and interviewed me.

'I then started getting contacted by brands. I now have a managing agent.'

'I do a lot of consultations with the likes of Sainsbury’s, Uber Eats, Morrisons, Motif FoodWorks and Waitrose. I have restaurants reach out asking if they can use my menus. I also get regularly contacted by charities and Islamic brands and relief.”

Nishat has just launched her app Epic Eats. It is available on the app store.

When asked how she balances PhD life, Nishat said she is always working in some capacity but enjoys the variety in her work schedule.

“My agent and finance team are great and really help me to focus on the food. Currently I have 3 major brand deals. I’m constantly working, videos can sometimes take up to 5hours to edit. It can be a struggle but it’s all worth it. 

Nishat's PhD ‘The biochemistry of salivary proteins interacting with novel food proteins in the mechanism of astringency' also supplies scientific data to Motif FoodWorks and Nestle. 

You can view and keep up with all of Nishat’s activity via Instagram and TikTok, plus her page on the massive food website mob.