Jyoti Pandey Pathak was born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal. She holds a degree in Home Science from the MS University of Baroda, India and taught at the National Vocational Training Center in Sano Thimi, Nepal before emigrating to the United States. She is author of Taste of Nepal, also published by Hippocrene Books, which won a Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best Foreign Cuisine Cookbook. She resides in western New York.