Dubby Bhagat, one of the pioneers of Nepal’s tourism industry and a renowned food critic, died on Wednesday.

He was 73. He was suffering from multiple ailments. He died at Patan Hospital.

Bhagat, who started his career in the late 60s with the Junior Statesman in Calcutta, first came to Kathmandu in 1975 to cover the late king Birendra’s coronation. And ever since he lived in Kathmandu, which he would fondly say always “charmed” him. He worked in hotels and the hospitality sector while helping design some star hotels in Kathmandu.

He was also a columnist for The Himalayan Times, an English daily, and wrote two weekly columns for the paper from 2004 to 2012—in one he would appear as a food critic and in another he would review and give his insights on English movies.

Bhagat also co-authored a book—Down History’s Narrow Lane: Sketches and Myths of the Kathmandu Valley—with Desmond Doig with whom he had worked in the Junior Statesman.

His last rites would be observed after his son AD Sherpa returns from Bangkok on Friday.