Saira Hamilton is a private chef and cookery teacher, who runs regular pop-ups and supper clubs featuring her Bengali-inspired food. She is a food writer and columnist, with video recipes featured on YouTube and on the digital channel Simply Good Food TV, and is a regular face on the food festival circuit, appearing live on stage with her easy-to-follow recipes and infectious enthusiasm for getting big flavours into your home cooking. Saira reached the finals of MasterChef 2013, and during the competition won high praise for her delicious dishes and deft spicing. Saira's parents settled in the UK but always maintained a close relationship with the country of their birth, and the family spent many holidays in Bangladesh, both in the bustling old town of Dhaka and lots of very happy times in their father Habib's village home of Dampara, in the north of the country. Saira's love of cooking was inspired by her mother Nadira, and the passion she kindled in her for the food and culture of their motherland. You can follow Saira on Twitter and Instagram @SairaHamilton and on Facebook at SairaHamiltonChef.