Rs. 12,000 / guest
Private Chef Table
An eight-course Valley degustation cooked in your home for up to 8 guests, with wine and local-spirit pairings and a printed menu to keep.
Executive Chef
Bishal Maharjan
Cooking the Kathmandu Valley — heritage Newari and Thakali kitchens reimagined through modern, seasonal technique.
Book a tastingKathmandu, Nepal
- Years in the kitchen
- 15+
- Signature dishes
- 60+
- Private tables hosted
- 400+
- Cooks mentored
- 30+
The Chef
A story told on the plate
I grew up between the wood-smoke of a Newari kitchen in Patan and the dal-bhat rhythm of a Thakali bhatti on the Mustang trail. Those two tables taught me everything: that flavour is memory, that fire is patience, and that a single perfectly tempered jimbu can change a dish.
After fifteen years across hotel kitchens in Kathmandu, Pokhara and abroad, I returned home to cook the Valley on my own terms — sourcing buckwheat from Jomsom, fermenting my own gundruk, and plating the food of my grandmother with the precision of a tasting menu.
Today I design intimate dining experiences: private chef tables, seasonal degustations, and consulting menus for restaurants that want to tell an honest Nepali story. Every plate begins at a farm in the hills and ends as something you remember.
Diploma in Culinary Arts
NATHM, Kathmandu · 2009 — 2011
Certified Food Safety & HACCP Manager
Nepal Tourism Board · 2016
Advanced Fermentation Residency
Noma Projects (guest stage) · 2019
In the Kitchen
Craft & technique
The disciplines behind every menu — from heritage fermentation to modern, precise plating.
Newari Heritage Cuisine96%
Thakali & Himalayan92%
Modern Plating90%
Fermentation & Pickling88%
Tasting-Menu Design93%
Tandoor & Wood Fire85%
Pastry & Dessert78%
Kitchen Leadership91%
Signature Dishes
Plates that tell the Valley
A rotating book of signatures — heritage flavours rebuilt with modern, seasonal technique.
- Newari
- Dessert
- Signature
Yomari Reverie
Steamed rice-flour dumpling filled with smoked chaku and toasted sesame, finished with a Mustang apple gastrique. A festival sweet, re-set as a plated dessert.
View the dish
- Newari
- Small Plate
Sukuti Tartare
Hand-cut air-dried buff sukuti, timur oil, fermented chilli, and crisp chiura, built tableside and served on a cold river stone.
- Thakali
- Main
Thakali Thali, Deconstructed
Jomsom buckwheat dhido, slow-braised mountain goat, gundruk ko jhol and three house pickles — the classic Thakali set, plated as a single composed course.
- Himalayan
- Seafood
Jimbu Smoked Trout
Rainbow trout from Godawari, cured and lightly smoked over jimbu and timur, with a chive-ash emulsion and pickled mooli.
- Newari
- Grill
- Signature
Choila Charcoal
Flame-licked water-buffalo choila, mustard oil, ginger and the haze of dried red chilli, finished over open charcoal and served with beaten rice.
- Dessert
- Seasonal
Sea-Buckthorn Kulfi
Slow-churned kulfi laced with Himalayan sea-buckthorn, candied walnut praline and a thread of wildflower honey from Lamjung.
Kitchens
A path through fire
The hotels, lodges and tables that shaped the way I cook.
2021 — Present
Executive Chef & Founder
Studio Jimbu — Private Dining
Founded an intimate chef-table and consulting studio in Jhamsikhel. Designs seasonal Valley-led degustation menus and trains young Nepali cooks in modern technique.
2017 — 2021
Head Chef
Dwarika's Hotel, Kathmandu
Led the heritage Newari kitchen and a 40-cover fine-dining brigade, earning national recognition for a contemporary Valley tasting menu.
2014 — 2017
Sous Chef
Temple Tree Resort, Pokhara
Ran lakeside service and built a lake-to-table programme sourcing trout, buckwheat and seasonal greens from Annapurna farms.
2011 — 2014
Chef de Partie
Taj Lands End, Mumbai
Trained across grill, garde-manger and pastry in a high-volume luxury kitchen; learned the discipline of consistency at scale.
Dining Experiences
Cook with me
Intimate tables, seasonal tasting menus, and consulting — each built around the season and your guests.
Rs. 7,500 / guest
Seasonal Tasting Menu
A rotating five-course menu built around what the hills are giving that week — for pop-ups, supper clubs and intimate celebrations.
From Rs. 1,50,000 / project
Restaurant Menu Consulting
Concept, menu engineering, kitchen workflow and brigade training to help a restaurant tell an honest, modern Nepali story.
Rs. 4,500 / person
Masterclass & Demo
A hands-on three-hour class on Newari fermentation, dhido or modern plating, for up to 10 home cooks and enthusiasts.
At the Table
What guests remember
“Bishal turned my living room into the best restaurant in Kathmandu for one night. The yomari dessert made my mother cry — he cooks memory, not just food.”
Anjali Shrestha
Host, Jhamsikhel supper club
“The most exciting Nepali cooking I have tasted. Deeply rooted, fiercely modern, and plated with the confidence of a chef working at the top of his craft.”
Marcus Bennett
Travel editor, Saveur
“We rebuilt our entire menu with Bishal. Guests now book the lodge for the food alone. His training left our young cooks transformed.”
Pratima Gurung
Owner, Annapurna Lodge, Pokhara
Reservations
Let's set the table
Tell me your date, your guests, and the season — and I'll design a menu around it.
Jhamsikhel, Lalitpur, Kathmandu