Presenter Nick 'cooks up' in traditional Kenyan style

Nick Kharbanda invites people to enjoy Koroga at his Eastcote pub restaurant

We caught up with another Unity 101 volunteer who is following their dreams. Nick Kharbanda was a presenter on the Urban Unity show before leaving to set up a business. He says: “In December 2009 I gave my family a Christmas card with a pop up bar in it saying, ‘This time next year we will have Christmas in our own pub!’ After a year looking at pubs we moved into The Black Horse in Eastcote in November 2010. “I totally forgot about the card but my mum kept it and gave it back to me that year as a Christmas card and said, ‘Look it came true!’” Nick and his family developed the pub into a restaurant serving both traditional pub food and a full Indian menu. To add a special touch, they built a barbecue area to introduce the Kenyan tradition of ‘Koroga’, a sociable ‘cook up’ and drinks around a coal pit with a large tava or metal cooking plate. Nick’s parents were born in Kenya and he says: “Koroga is something we used to do at home with family at any opportunity. When we got the pub we knew family time would be minimised so we built the Koroga area for everyone to enjoy. “People can cook for themselves, with us on hand to help by putting in the right ingredients at the right time. We even made our own spice mix with everything needed to make the perfect Koroga, whether it’s chicken, lamb, veg, prawns or fish. And that took off too! We now sell Nico's Polle Polle Spice mix, professionally bottled, in our pub and online.”