Asma Khan

Khan was born in July 1969[1][2] and grew up in Calcutta.[3] She has an older sister[4] and a younger brother. Her family lamented the birth of a second daughter instead of the desired son.[4] According to Khan "there is a deafening silence" in India about the disappointment a family feels at having a second daughter.[4] She has said that she and her siblings were treated equally by her parents, and that she and her mother "made peace while I was still very young."[5] Her father is Rajput from western Uttar Pradesh.[3] Her mother is from West Bengal and had a catering business in the 1970s and 1980s.[3]

Khan moved with her husband to Cambridge in 1991.[6] She had never learned to cook[7] and missed the dishes she had grown up eating.[8] She first started learning to cook from an aunt who lived in Cambridge.[9] After her aunt died, Khan returned to India for a visit of a few months[8] to continue lessons with her mother and the family's cook.[9][10]

In 1996 her husband moved to SOAS University of London to teach,[9] and Khan started studying law at King's College London. She graduated with a PhD in British Constitutional Law in 2012.[3]

In 2012,[11] after obtaining her PhD, Khan started offering a series of private supper clubs in her home.[3][9][12] Vivek Singh attended one and invited her to host a pop-up at his restaurant, The Cinnamon Club.[8] In 2015, after her family complained,[12][13] she moved the supper clubs to a Soho pub, Sun and 13 Cantons, and started serving lunches instead.[11][9][14] She struggled early on to lead her team of home cooks, mostly local immigrants working for the first time in a professional kitchen, but then a review by Fay Maschler helped bring in customers.[11][12][13]

Interior of Darjeeling Express

In 2016 Simon Quayle, a regular customer and executive director of Shaftesbury, offered her the opportunity to compete for a lease in Soho.[8] When an investor backed out, Khan's husband gave her the money she needed, although he disapproved of the business.[3] Khan opened Darjeeling Express, which offers Indian Rajput and Bengali[11] home cooking specialties,[4] in 2017 in Soho.[3] She named the restaurant after a train she rode as a child during summer holidays.[15] Her team consisted of Asian immigrant women who all had full-time jobs and were never trained professionally; they worked for Khan on their days off but were able to cut back hours at their other jobs and eventually give them up altogether.[12][16] Most of the all-female kitchen staff[6][17] at the restaurant are second daughters.[4] All are South Asian.[1] Food & Wine called Darjeeling Express a "smash hit".[18]

In 2017, Khan was profiled by the BBC in a short documentary.[8]

Khan, about to open a dum biryani

In 2018 her cookbook, Asma's Indian Kitchen,[3] was published by Pavilion Books.[19] The San Francisco Chronicle called it a "stellar debut".[20] It was shortlisted for the 2018 World Gourmand award for Best Indian Cookbook.[8][21]

In April 2018 Khan was approached by Brian McGinn, producer of Chef's Table, to be profiled on the series.[9] Filming started in London and India in July with Zia Mandviwalla directing.[9][12] Khan recalls Mandviwalla, who was born in Mumbai and lives in New Zealand, "did not ask me pointless questions about my husband and marriage, I did not need to explain what my mother meant to me, she got it."[9] The programme first aired in February 2019. Khan is the first British chef to be featured.[3][4][9][11] The series' sixth season's theme is "the journey home".[11] The season, which included Khan's episode, was nominated for an Emmy in the outstanding documentary section.[22] According to Bloomberg it became difficult to get a reservation at Darjeeling Express after the series aired.[23]

In May 2019 Khan was featured on NPR's The Splendid Table.[24]

In June 2019 Business Insider named her number 1 on their list of "100 Coolest People in Food and Drink".[1]

On Sundays, when Darjeeling Express is closed, Khan offers free use of the premises to women who are aspiring chefs and restaurateurs who would like to host supper clubs.[9][25]

Khan's restaurants support a non-profit, Second Daughters Fund, which encourages families in India to celebrate the births of second daughters by sending packages of sweet treats to be shared with neighbors.[4][12]

In July 2019, to mark her 50th birthday, Khan planned to travel to Northern Iraq to open an all-women cafe for survivors of ISIS.[1]

Khan is married to Mushtaq, an academic.[3] According to Khan, he is not a fan of her food, preferring simple dishes and finding hers too complex.[3] The couple have two sons.[11] She is Muslim.[3][9]