Archive · 4 Oct 2026
Rohini Rana’s Fusion Cookbook Blends Memory, Travel and Tradition
Rohini Rana has written cookbooks about food from Nepal and India.
Her newest book brings together recipes inspired by her travels and the places where her family lived.
She says the idea for writing her first cookbook came during an army posting.
Moving often meant making a home in new places, sometimes with only the ingredients available nearby.
Friends and other army families also helped her learn about local foods and traditions.
Some recipes in her new book take inspiration from Africa, Japan and the United States.
Rana believes a dish becomes personal when it carries someone’s own memories and experiences.
She hopes her books help Indian and Nepali food traditions live on.
Rohini Rana’s latest book, Memories on a Platter: My Fusion Cookbook, draws on Indian, Nepali and global influences.
Rana says the idea for her first cookbook began during an army posting in Suparitar Barrack.
Her books document Rana family recipes and food traditions from Nepal’s ethnic communities.
The new book includes dishes influenced by places such as Africa, Japan and the United States.
Rana says her fusion cooking reflects personal memories, travel and experiences, as well as the uncertainty and separation of army life.
- Who
- Rohini Rana, a cookbook writer and culinary historian.
- What
- She discusses her life, culinary influences and latest book, Memories on a Platter: My Fusion Cookbook.
- When
- The interview was published on an unspecified date; Rana says her first book was published in 2021.
- Where
- The interview is with Scroll; Rana’s experiences include army postings in Nepal and elsewhere.
- Why
- Rana says she wants to preserve culinary traditions and share recipes shaped by her memories, travels and experiences.
- Latest book
- Memories on a Platter: My Fusion Cookbook
- Earlier books
- The Rana Cookbook: Recipes from the Palaces of Nepal; The Nepal Cookbook: 108 Regional Recipes
- First cookbook inspiration
- A posting in Suparitar Barrack, where Rana began planning a book about Rana recipes
- Army service
- Her husband served in the army for 43 years; Rana says she was with him for 40 years.
- Culinary influences
- Primarily India and Nepal, along with other countries where she travelled
- Examples of global influences
- Sambousa from Africa, tempura from Japan and mac and cheese from the United States
- First book publication
- Rana says her first book was published in 2021.