INDIAN born, British chef Asma Khan seems to be on a mission to bring popular age-old Indian food to home kitchen, embedding it into public memory.
Award-winning chef and the owner of London’s famous Darjeeling Express restaurant, Khan is counted as one of the UK brightest Indian culinary stars.
Through her latest cookbook “Ammu: Indian Home Cooking to Nourish Your Soul”, she has paid homage to her roots and her association with Indian heritage by uncomplicating age-old Indian recipes for homes so that their legacy lives on.
Khan’s brainchild Darjeeling Express is the only female-owned, female-led Indian restaurant in the world, run not by men trained in posh culinary schools but instead by women of all ages who have seen the art of cooking since childhood. She said in a recent interview that she sees her restaurant brand as a “battle cry” on “patriarchy that runs deep in our culture”.
“We serve the simple food of the women who are in their graves, as a salaam and a salute to the women who never celebrated,” said Khan.
Khan’s journey started in 2012 when soon after moving from India to the UK post her marriage, she happened to befriend a few women, majorly immigrant nannies and housewives whom she had met at her children’s school. She started serving them authentic Indian food which soon took the shape of her private supper club.
Popularity of the club spread like wildfire and very soon she emerged as the master of authentic home-cooked Mughlai cuisines.
As the popularity of her Supper Club grew, she rented a small place in Soho to meet the increasing demand. In 2017, Khan founded Darjeeling Express- a 56-seat location offering Indian, authentic Rajput and Bengali cuisines.
After a brief closure due to pandemic, Darjeeling Express officially reopened its doors to its new 90-seating Covent Garden restaurant in December 2020. Its latest site is at Kingly Court off Carnaby Street. She published her first cookbook, Asma’s Indian Kitchen, in 2018 which went on to become a top seller.
Today, Darjeeling Express is a name to reckon for when it comes to top Indian places to eat in the UK. It donates a portion of its profits to Second Daughter’s fundraising page which encourages families in India to celebrate the births of second daughters.
Khan also sits on the Mayor’s Business Advisory Board and is an Honorary Fellow at Oxford University. Khan is the first British chef to be profiled in Netflix’s Emmy nominated Chef’s Table and the first chef to be featured on Vogue’s list of 25 most influential women.
