About Niru

My name is Niru Kumra and I am in my 50s, born in Punjab, India and raised in Fredrikstad. I have always had an interest in food and got it through my mother's milk with my hobby cook mother and grandmother who taught housekeeping in 1947

My breakthrough came in the school kitchen in 6th grade, where I eagerly learned how to make Norwegian cakes and yeast pastries that my mother was not familiar with. I didn't get a cooking education, but several years at school with economics at Østfold District College, project management at BI and innovation at NTNU a few years after I started MasalaMagic. Through 13 years in various ministries, the private business sector and not least the "school of life" I have had incredibly fun and at times challenging times.

On a daily basis I live out my dream through masalamagic.com (started in 2003), where the dream of my own chutney was the seed of what is now a small “tree” of family business with a vision to make Indian food as well known as pizza, pasta and tacos. I am the first to have written an Indian cookbook in Norwegian, “Indian food on Norwegian plates” was published in 2004. This is where the ball started rolling with cooking classes in school kitchens which have now become my everyday life.

At Carl Berner I have a course center where you can learn to cook Indian food, offer catering to individuals and companies, culinary trips to India and now have a food series of 17 products, "Nirus Masalamagic", which can be purchased at Meny, Jacobs and Kiwi, among others. In the fall of 2017 I published my second cookbook, "Masalamagic – the magic of the Indian kitchen".

Otherwise, I have three wonderful children and a loving spouse who support me and are my team-MasalaMagic. They are both guinea pigs, colleagues and cheerleaders when mom needs it.

Welcome to Nirus World
– Indian food on Norwegian plates