Lina Gautam’s Spicy Gizzards (Ghuseuto Tareko)

SHIVA and Lina Gautam travelled from Kathmandu in 1996 with the lofty ambition of opening a Nepalese restaurant.

They had planned to have their dream restaurant in Richmond, London but an Irish friend enticed them here saying, “Why not Dublin? There isn’t a single decent curry house in Dublin and your restaurant would fly here.”

Their first priority was to find someone who could back them. They took a giant leap of faith and signed a 25-year lease. The next challenge was to find chefs with knowledge of Nepalese food. They managed to secure two chefs from London to Dublin and on Sept 25, 1997, they opened Montys of Kathmandu. Sadly or perhaps fortuitously neither of the two chefs could settle in Dublin so Shiva and Lina were faced with a dilemma, either to close the doors or don aprons and go into the kitchen themselves. They haven’t looked back since.