Asma Khan Brings Biryani (with a Side of Inclusion) to London Kitchens

With aromas of cardamom, nutmeg, and garam masala wafting from the stoves, Asma Khan presides over the kitchen of her bustling London restaurant Darjeeling Express. She steps away to greet her guests and to share jokes with her staff, who she considers family. At her central London restaurant, her menu is extensive, highlighting the varied regional cuisines of Indian cooking, but there’s one star dish: biryani.

Biryani is a flavorful mixed rice dish that has roots throughout Central and South Asia; the dish has long been a staple at large gatherings and celebrations, like Eid and weddings, where cooks need to feed guests en masse. Born in Calcutta in 1969, but living in the United Kingdom since 1991, Khan draws inspiration from her Mughal roots to transport diners back to the royal kitchens of 16th Century India. In those kitchens, rice and meat were prepared in a single pot, in quantities large enough to feed armies. (Khan insists she can’t make biryani for fewer than 100 people.) Over time, as with most things, the dish has evolved to accommodate gastronomic preferences over centuries, across cultures, and utilizing local ingredients.

Biryani is a flavorful mixed rice dish that has roots throughout Central and South Asia.

Courtesy of Asma Khan

Although Khan’s restaurant is widely popular for her chicken biryani with saffron-infused milk, cinnamon, and cloves, for vegetarians she has an exclusive dum aloo (potato) biryani whose secret ingredient is nutmeg. Potatoes in biryani are rare, and typically not found in Northern variations, but Khan’s treasured recipe was handed down to her by a lineage of family cooks. As an homage to Persian chefs, Khan also incorporates golden prawns of Central Asia to her biryani and other dishes, which were ingredients commonly served to kings and powerful figures.

There’s a lot of pride in Khan’s voice as she shares how she has elevated traditional recipes of her household and carried them over to the United Kingdom. “When I opened my own restaurant, I didn’t want to serve customers ‘fake biryani,’’’ she says. “My dish is cooked in eight hours so the depth of rice, layering of flavor and setting of spices comes together. I want them to take leftovers home. After all, in the South Asian tradition you don’t leave someone’s house empty handed.”

“There’s this belief that roti (made by women at home) only tastes good when it’s free. It’s time we give these women the opportunity to be in control.”

Khan’s impact extends far beyond a plate of biryani: She is the first British chef to be featured on Netflix’s Chef’s Table, a chef advocate at the World Food Programme, and continues to leave an indelible mark on London’s culinary scene. She’s also deeply committed to cultivating diversity in the industry, starting with her own kitchen. “In South Asian home kitchens, you have a woman or matriarch cooking, but if you look at professional restaurants, they are full of men. There’s this belief that roti (made by women at home) only tastes good when it’s free. It’s time we give these women the opportunity to be in control,” she adds.

At Darjeeling Express, the staff is mostly female, including three grandmothers. Many of these women began 10 years ago with Khan when she was first operating out of her home kitchen. Now, it’s a collective of women who share Khan’s vision to bond over food and community. “This journey is not just mine,” she says. “At my restaurant, I have an open kitchen so I want others to look at the women cooking, observe the females in management, and understand that here we celebrate the hands that cook and make sure they get paid their worth.”

Asma Khan's biryani takes eight hours to cook.

Courtesy of Asma Khan

This, of course, doesn't come without its challenges, as Khan experienced for years. “There’s a lot of bias around single female founders, and I struggled to find a site for a restaurant. Not a single landlord wanted me. But when a global pandemic happened and male chefs lagged, I finally got attention.”

As a solo female founder, she also felt a disconnect between ownership and management—as the owner, her visions did not always align with investors, and she found that management typically did not know the intricacies of running a restaurant.

When she's not commanding the stoves, Khan stays busy with an array of projects promoting inclusion. She’s trying to move the “chessboard” of leadership as she describes it, and train, educate, and mentor more “queens” to make their moves. She aspires to open a cooking school and a school of leadership for women in hospitality to curate a new generation of women who push boundaries and advocate for the rights in and out of the kitchens.

Asma Khan's restaurant is staffed by nearly all women, who share a vision of bonding over food and community.

Courtesy of Asma Khan

"My job is to change the narrative,” she says. ”It’s still a men’s club and I want women to look at that and think, 'I don’t belong in that club and I don’t want to, but instead I will be here changing the rules.'”

Khan is changing the inner makeup of her kitchens and advocating for the overdue rights for women in the culinary industry—and to think her plight for equality and passion for food all started with her love for biryani.