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Asma Khan: A force for women in food

London's Darjeeling Express – the only all-female Indian kitchen in the world – is 365 beatground zero for Asma Khan, a champion of women's empowerment in a movement that is now global.

A cacophony of clattering pans, hissing oil and barked orders laden with expletives: this has become a stereotypical image of the professional kitchen, where producing great food necessitates a physical struggle. Listen carefully at the Darjeeling Express, chef Asma Khan's acclaimed Indian restaurant at Kingly Court in London, however, and you might hear singing begin to spill out from the kitchen as the chefs cook. But nothing about the Darjeeling Express is stereotypical, and the story of Khan and her restaurant has broken the mould at every turn.

The chefs at the Darjeeling Express are all women. The average age is 50 and the team includes three grandmothers. They have no formal training, and many have overcome enormous barriers to get here. For Khan, their achievements represent the pinnacle of her work.

"There is no success that I could have had in my life that goes anywhere close to how I felt seeing these women break their chains," said Khan, reflecting on how proud the original Darjeeling Express chefs were when they tried on chef's whites for the first time after the restaurant opened in 2017. "Coming from nothing, from memories of hunger and deprivation, huge racism… They were free, and this, I think, is the reason why we are successful. You feel that power when you come into my restaurant. It's the Shakti [cosmic energy] and the strength of women. You'll see every woman is laughing and smiling. Because for them this is not a job. This is liberation."

The restaurant has been lauded by reviewers and critics for its traditional, home-style Indian cooking, and is a favourite of celebrities like Danny DeVito, Paul Rudd and Keira Knightley. The dishes, like Khan's famous biryani served at special supper club events and the celebrated kosha mangsho goat curry, burst with flavour and texture. They represent Indian food as it's supposed to be: made to be shared and cooked with passion, with the intention of nourishing body and soul. Many recipes are generations-old, inspired by the food Khan ate as a child. Her commitment to great food, championing underrepresented voices and philanthropic work have been common threads that have run through her career from the very beginning.

Khan grew up in Kolkata, India. Her parents came from royal families, Bengali on her mother's side and Rajput on her father's. The desire to help others was instilled at an early age. Khan said, "My father is incredible. He would always tell us, 'It is an accident of birth that you were born in a palace. You could have been born in a slum… The reason you are successful is so that you can clear the pathways for others.'"

Although food had always been hugely important to her, Khan didn't begin to cook until she moved to England in 1991 with her husband, who worked at the University of Cambridge. "I was eating alone for the first time in my life," Khan explained. "It was a lesson to me on the fact that I'd never recognised the privilege of the way that I grew up… and also the privilege to eat beautiful food, a variety of food. All the things that I took for granted suddenly were gone." On her first trip back home, Khan said this to her mother, who replied, "Let's go to the kitchen. I'll teach you how to cook."

The cooking came naturally. "Because I had spent so much time in the kitchen [as a child], I had the idea of the sounds that spices made, like when the mustard seed popped or exactly when the onion had been caramelised. It was just the rhythm of instructions and sounds and the most beautiful way to learn to cook. When I came back to Cambridge, my husband was flat on the ground. He could not believe I was the same person. I was the queen of the kitchen."

After moving to London in 1996, Khan studied law at King's College London. Her family also grew during this period. She had her first son after completing her degree and her second while studying for her PhD, which she completed in 2013. Even while working on her PhD, she harboured a secret desire to work with food, but she had no idea how it would be possible. "There was no road map in front of me. You didn't see anyone like me on food media. Well, how could I even imagine that this was something I could do? It didn't even occur to me, because you cannot be what you cannot see. And I saw nobody in their forties, the colour of skin I am, without having the connections and the mentors and the backing that the few women who were in hospitality had."

To test the waters, Khan held a supper club in her home in 2012, with all the money raised going to charity. The women who were to become Darjeeling Express' chefs were live-in nannies, generally from South Asia, who worked for families in Khan's area of London. They were expected to leave their employer's house on Sundays, their day off, and return in the evening. With nowhere else to go, they would spend hours sitting in the park close to Khan's home. Khan began inviting them to her house to watch Indian soap operas, drink tea and eat samosas, and, after learning about the supper clubs, they asked if they could help.

Asma Khan uses her all-female run kitchen at London's Darjeeling Express as a platform to advocate for better gender equality and the rights of oppressed people.

Rashmi Raut, a chef at Darjeeling Express, recalled, "I left Mumbai many years ago to work as a nanny. I was introduced to Asma by my friend who told me you got to eat Indian food and watch Indian soap opera[s] in the kitchen when you worked in [Khan's] supper club on a Sunday. I always used to have a holiday on Sunday, and I thought I will make friends this way by working at the supper club. That was 12 years ago – now all [the] chefs are like family."

The reputation of the supper clubs spread, eventually reaching Vivek Singh, CEO and executive chef of the?Cinnamon Collection, who gave Khan her first big break. He reflected, "Then as much as now, her food, her reasons and her stories were all completely authentic to her, it was easy to see and feel the love she had for feeding people." When Khan made the decision to stop hosting supper clubs in her home, Singh volunteered space in his Westminster restaurant, The Cinnamon Club. "It was no encumbrance to us or our guests, and they could continue the work they had started in the form of [Darjeeling Express], which was such a positive thing for so many women. The rest, as they say, is history!"

The Darjeeling Express went from strength to strength. In 2015, Khan hosted a pop-up followed by a residency at The Sun & 13 Cantons pub in Soho. It was during this period that Fay Maschler, journalist and restaurant critic, wrote a glowing review that saw people clamouring to try the food. The Darjeeling Express moved to become a full-fledged restaurant in Kingly Court, Carnaby Street, in 2017. In 2020, the restaurant moved to Covent Garden. Despite huge success, the new premises had a basement kitchen that meant Khan's team were hidden away. In 2023, the Darjeeling Express moved back to Kingly Court to a larger space with an open kitchen, where the chefs could shine.

In addition to the restaurant, Khan has also been busy with other projects. In 2018, she published a bestselling cookbook, Asma's Indian Kitchen, which explores family recipes that go back generations. Ammu, published in 2022, is a tribute to her mother and the simple home cooking of Khan's youth. It was chosen as The Times Cookbook of the Year 2022. In 2019, Khan was also the first British chef to feature in the Netflix series, Chef's Table, with an episode exploring her fascinating life story.

Success has not changed the ethos of the Darjeeling Express. It remains a place where good food is cooked beautifully. A place of joy and laughter that continues to change lives. Bimla Thapa, a chef at the restaurant, said, "I left Nepal with my husband who was a British Gurkha [soldiers from Nepal recruited into the British Army] and lived in Hong Kong. I am a grandmother. I sadly lost my son and then my husband and had problems with my legs. When I met mam Asma she was very kind – I came in to work when I was well enough to. Now my daughter-in-law is working in Darjeeling Express, and we come to work together. I love to sing and do TikTok dance videos ?– all the chefs love to see me dance."

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As well as providing a platform for women from diverse backgrounds with its team of chefs, the restaurant donates a percentage of profits to Khan's foundation, the Second Daughters Fund. Khan herself, and many of the chefs at Darjeeling Express, are second daughters. In traditional India, sons are generally preferred over daughters, and the births of second daughters are sometimes mourned rather than celebrated. The fund aims to change this.

When girls are born in villages where members of the restaurant team are from, sweets and fireworks are sent to inspire celebration. The fund also supports infrastructure projects designed to help the girls access education. This year, the restaurant will be donating money from the sale of water to create wells closer to the homes of these families, freeing the girls from spending their days fetching water from far away so they can attend school.

In 2022, Khan was chosen as a United Nations World Food Programme Chef Advocate for her work in raising awareness of the global hunger crisis and the role of women's empowerment in transforming communities. Khan has also worked to support diverse voices in the UK food scene. Imad Alarnab, chef and owner of Imad's Syrian Kitchen, was a successful restaurateur in Damascus before being forced to flee Syria during the war and eventually coming to the UK as a refugee. He said, "It was clear from the moment I met Asma that she was all about lifting other people up and putting a spotlight on chefs from different backgrounds and ethnicities. When she moved out of Kingly Court, she was incredibly kind and generous and insisted on me taking over the space… Asma is a real positive?force to be reckoned with, a great role model and a true global chef champion."

The Darjeeling Express stands as a model of success against the odds. Reflecting on its impact and what it means for the future, Khan said, "We are a battle cry for justice, because, in every home from Afghanistan to Sri Lanka, it's women who are cooking. In every restaurant in the East and the West, when it is a proper restaurant, it is men. We did what no one had done before. We are still today the only all-female Indian kitchen in the world at this level and I will live to see more. It is a political project. This is not a business."

Ammu's Chicken Biryani recipe

By Asma Khan

Serves 6

Biryani was always made for big celebratory occasions. In my mother's family, it was usually made with khasi, or goat, and cooked in a giant pot with layers of rice, meat and potatoes infused with spices and saffron. This recipe is a very personal one. This was the biryani that was made just for the five of us – my parents, my two siblings and me. On days when there was some good news, or more typically on days when something had gone wrong – from my brother losing a cricket match or me not doing so well in my exams – Ammu would get this biryani on the table and suddenly everything seemed okay!

This is also usually the last dish I eat at home before I make the five-hour car journey from my parents' home to the airport to catch my flight to London. I always felt that layered in that biryani were things my mother couldn't say. When the biryani arrived on the table, it felt like Ammu's secret code, telling me that she loved me.

200g (7oz) plain flour

500g (18oz) good quality basmati rice

5 tbsp salt

? tsp saffron strands

80ml (5? tbsp) full-fat milk

8 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil (sometimes I mix both and it works really well)

2 white onions, thinly sliced into half moons

1kg (2.2lb) skinless chicken thighs, on the bone

3 garlic cloves, crushed

5-6cm (2-2?in) piece of fresh ginger, grated

2 tbsp full-fat Greek-style yoghurt

? tsp chilli powder

2 green cardamom pods

2 cloves

1cm (?in) piece of cinnamon stick

1cm (?in) piece of mace, crushed

? tsp grated nutmeg

? tsp sugar

juice of ? lemon

Method

Step 1

Mix the flour with enough water (roughly ? cup, added gradually as needed) to make a firm dough, cover and leave to rest.

Step 2

Wash the rice in a bowl of cold water, moving your hand in gentle circular movements in one direction to avoid breaking the delicate tips of the rice (if broken off, the virtually invisible tips will boil rapidly when the rice goes into the hot water and turn into glue-like starch, which will make all the rice sticky). Wash the rice in several changes of cold water until the water remains clear.

Step 3

Next, soak the rice. There should be at least 15-20cm (6-8in) of water in the bowl above the rice level. Add 2 tbsp of the salt and soak the rice for at least 2 hours. The long soaking allows the rice to absorb water. As the rice is not hollow and dry when it is put into boiling water, the cooking time is minimised; this will help keep your rice grains long and separate.

Step 4

Put the saffron in a small bowl. Warm the milk to tepid: my mother would describe it as blood temperature – if you touch the milk, it should feel only slightly warm. If you are using a microwave to heat the milk, remember to stir the milk before checking the temperature as there may be hot spots. Pour the tepid milk over the saffron and set aside to infuse.

Step 5

Heat the ghee or oil in a heavy-based pan over a medium-high heat and fry the onions until caramelised. Using a slotted spoon and leaving as much of the oil in the pan as possible, remove the onions to a plate, spreading them out to cool.

Step 6

Remove half the oil from the pan and set aside. In the remaining oil, add the chicken and cook over a medium-high heat until golden brown on both sides. Add the garlic, ginger, yoghurt, chilli powder and 2 tsp of the salt and cook over a medium-high heat until the garlic and ginger have lost their raw smell and the yoghurt has reduced. Add half the caramelised onions, then add warm water to cover the chicken, bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for about 25 minutes. You do not want the chicken to be tender: it should still be firm as it will be cooked further with the rice.

Step 7

Drain the soaked rice. Boil the kettle and pour the water into a large pan. Bring back to the boil, add another 6 tsp salt, then add the drained rice and boil until the rice is three-quarters cooked (this should not take more than 5 minutes). To test, remove one grain from the boiling water and squeeze it. There should be a hard core to the grain of rice. When the rice reaches this stage, drain and spread it on a tray to prevent it from continuing to cook.

Step 8

To assemble the biryani you will need a heavy-based pan with a tight-fitting lid. Using a slotted spoon, remove the chicken from its cooking liquid and place it in the pan. Strain the cooking liquid and pour over the chicken. Try to squeeze as much as you can from the onion/ginger/garlic residue so the stock is nice and thick. It should just about cover the chicken pieces. Next, add the cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, mace and nutmeg. Add half the saffron milk, the sugar and lemon juice. Then add the rice, ensuring it covers the chicken. On top of the rice, add the remaining caramelised onions, the remaining saffron milk and the reserved oil.

Step 9

Put the biryani pan over a high heat and wait until steam starts coming out. Let the steam come through for 1 minute. Meanwhile, roll the dough into tubes and use the dough to seal the lid of the biryani pan by adhering it around the rim. Put the pan on top of an iron frying pan or tawa over a medium-high heat: this is to diffuse the heat. If you do not have an iron pan, put the biryani pan into a preheated oven at 190C/170C fan/gas 5 (375F) for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, turn the oven to 150C/130C fan/gas 2 (300F) and leave for 20 minutes. If you are using an iron frying pan or tawa on the hob, reduce the heat to low, cover the top of the pan with a folded clean kitchen cloth and leave for 20 minutes.

Step 10

When ready to serve, unseal the biryani lid and discard the dough, discarding the dough. Using a large spoon and starting from one side, gently lift the chicken up and mix with the rice. You need to gently merge the wet rice with the dry rice on the top, so each grain is perfectly moist. Serve.

(Recipe extracted from?Ammu?by Asma Khan [Ebury Press]. Photography by Laura Edwards).

BBC.com's?World's Table "smashes the kitchen ceiling" by changing the way the world thinks about food, through the past, present and future.

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