Asma Khan is the Indian-born British chef and owner of Darjeeling Express in Soho, London, a restaurant celebrated for its all-female kitchen of South Asian immigrant women, most of whom were second daughters like Khan herself and none of whom were professionally trained when they joined the team. Born in Calcutta in July 1969, Khan moved to England with her husband in 1991 and completed a PhD in Constitutional Law in London before opening a supper club in her home in 2012 and Darjeeling Express as a restaurant in 2017.
Darjeeling Express is listed in the Michelin Guide and serves an Indian menu focused on Bengali, Hyderabadi and Kolkatan home cooking on shared platters. Khan was the first British chef to be profiled on Netflix’s Chef’s Table (season 6, February 2019). Business Insider named her number 1 on its 2019 list of the 100 Coolest People in Food and Drink. Time named her one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2024. In January 2026, Shaftesbury Capital confirmed that Darjeeling Express will relocate to a 5,600-square-foot, 130-cover, two-storey space at 36-40 Rupert Street in Soho.
TL;DR
- Indian-born British chef born July 1969 in Calcutta; moved to England 1991
- Chef-owner of Darjeeling Express in Soho, London (opened 2017)
- All-female kitchen of South Asian immigrant women, most with no prior professional training
- First British chef on Netflix’s Chef’s Table (season 6, 2019); Time 100 Most Influential 2024
- In January 2026 announced relocation to a 5,600-sq-ft, 130-cover, two-storey space on Rupert Street
Asma Khan key facts
| Born | July 1969, Calcutta (now Kolkata), India |
| Nationality | Indian-born British |
| Academic background | PhD in Constitutional Law, King’s College London |
| Main restaurant | Darjeeling Express, Kingly Court, Soho, London (relocating to 36-40 Rupert Street in 2026) |
| Kitchen | All-female team of South Asian immigrant women; most are second daughters |
| Style | Bengali, Hyderabadi and Kolkatan Indian home cooking; sharing platters; royal Mughlai heritage |
| Television | Netflix Chef’s Table season 6 (2019); Food Network Secrets of the Curry Kitchen (2025) |
Early life and academic training of Asma Khan
Khan was born in July 1969 in Calcutta and grew up there with an older sister and a younger brother. She has spoken publicly about her family’s initial disappointment at the birth of a second daughter, an experience that shaped her later commitment to supporting second daughters and immigrant women. Her ancestry traces to royal Mughlai cuisine, which runs through her cooking. She has said she and her siblings were treated equally by her parents and that she and her mother reconciled early.
Khan moved to England with her husband in 1991 and completed a PhD in Constitutional Law at King’s College London. She began cooking professionally in 2012 out of homesickness, running a supper club from her home that grew by word of mouth. In 2015 she took a residency at the Sun and 13 Cantons pub in Soho. In 2017 Simon Quayle, a regular customer and executive director of Shaftesbury, offered her the opportunity to compete for a Soho lease. When an investor pulled out, her husband provided the funds despite disapproving of the business. Darjeeling Express opened in Kingly Court that year as a 56-seat Indian restaurant.
Khan named the restaurant after the train she rode as a child during summer holidays between her family home in Calcutta and the hill town of Darjeeling. Her team consisted of South Asian immigrant women who at opening all held full-time jobs elsewhere and worked at Darjeeling Express on their days off, without professional culinary training. As the restaurant grew, many were able to reduce hours at their other jobs and eventually work full time at the restaurant. Most are second daughters. The kitchen has remained entirely female since opening.
Asma Khan career timeline
- July 1969: Born in Calcutta, India
- 1991: Moves to England with her husband
- Early 2000s: Completes PhD in Constitutional Law at King’s College London
- 2012: Begins cooking professionally with a home-based supper club
- 2015: Takes residency at the Sun and 13 Cantons, Soho
- 2017: Opens Darjeeling Express as a 56-seat restaurant in Kingly Court, Soho, with an all-female kitchen of South Asian immigrant women
- February 2019: First British chef profiled on Netflix’s Chef’s Table (season 6, directed by Zia Mandviwalla); season nominated for an Emmy
- 2019: Named No. 1 on Business Insider’s 100 Coolest People in Food and Drink
- 2020: Original Kingly Court site closes due to COVID-19; reopens at the former Carluccio’s site in Seven Dials as a 120-cover restaurant and deli
- March 2022: Closes the Seven Dials site; runs a six-month pop-up at the Pembroke gastropub in South Kensington
- 2022: Publishes Ammu cookbook; named chef advocate by the World Food Programme
- 2023: Returns to Kingly Court in a larger top-floor, 96-cover space next to the original 2017 location
- 2024: Named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year
- 2025: Hosts 10-episode Food Network series Secrets of the Curry Kitchen; becomes first patron of the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation
- January 2026: Announces relocation to a 5,600-sq-ft, 130-cover, two-storey space at 36-40 Rupert Street in Soho
Asma Khan signature style: royal Mughlai heritage and home cooking
Khan’s argument is that Indian food as served in most Indian restaurants in the West bears little resemblance to the food cooked by women in Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan homes. Her menu at Darjeeling Express is built around Bengali, Hyderabadi and Kolkatan home cooking, drawing on her own royal Mughlai ancestry (her family were part of the Rajput nobility) and the street food of Calcutta where she grew up. Dishes are served on sharing platters rather than individually plated, and the biryani supper club events have become the restaurant’s single biggest draw.
The second defining choice is the all-female immigrant kitchen. Khan’s explicit argument is that home cooking in South Asia is done by women, and that an Indian restaurant cooked by women is the closer representation of the cuisine. The kitchen has been staffed since 2017 by South Asian immigrant women, most without prior professional training, many of them second daughters. Khan takes the approach that domestic cooking expertise is restaurant-grade expertise, and refuses to require professional CVs from her hires.
The third pillar is ingredient philosophy. Khan has publicly refused to serve vegetables flown in from Africa or Asia, on sustainability and farmer-welfare grounds. Darjeeling Express operates with no single-use plastic, minimal food wastage, and local and seasonal sourcing. A percentage of restaurant proceeds goes to Second Daughters, Khan’s charitable initiative to support the education of second daughters in India.
Notable dishes at Darjeeling Express
Several Darjeeling Express dishes have become reference points in London’s Indian restaurant scene. The biryani (Hyderabadi or Kolkatan depending on the week, served at dedicated supper club events) is the single most-booked course at the restaurant. Puchkas (Bengali filled-shell street snacks) open most menus. Tangra-Chinese fried chicken, a Calcutta Chinatown speciality, bridges the two food traditions of Khan’s childhood. Puri (Bengali-style potatoes with puffed bread) is a lunchtime signature. Sharing platters of seasonal vegetable curries, daals and rotis rotate with the menu. Sweet lassi with rose petals and kulfi close most menus. Khan has published the Darjeeling Express cookbook and Ammu (2022), a cookbook built around her mother’s recipes.
Asma Khan awards and recognition
- 2019: First British chef profiled on Netflix’s Chef’s Table (season 6 Emmy-nominated)
- 2019: No. 1 on Business Insider’s 100 Coolest People in Food and Drink
- 2022: World Food Programme chef advocate
- 2022: Ammu cookbook published
- 2024: Time 100 Most Influential People
- 2025: Food Network Secrets of the Curry Kitchen 10-episode series host
- 2025: First patron of the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation
- Michelin Guide listed since 2018
Asma Khan impact on London dining and women in hospitality
Khan’s most concrete contribution is the demonstration that an all-female immigrant kitchen without professional training can run a critically recognised London restaurant for nearly a decade across multiple locations. Darjeeling Express has employed dozens of South Asian immigrant women since 2017, many of whom transitioned from other full-time work into food careers. Khan’s outspoken position on discrimination in the hospitality industry (she is one of few high-profile women to speak publicly against chefs like Gordon Ramsay) has made her a reference figure for the Be Inclusive Hospitality programme and comparable UK initiatives.
The second contribution is the home-cooking standard for Indian fine dining in Western capitals. Where most Indian restaurants in London (and New York, and Paris) have served variants of a restaurant-kitchen Punjabi or pan-Indian curry-house template, Darjeeling Express serves what Khan describes as what people actually eat at home in Calcutta and Hyderabad. The 2019 Netflix Chef’s Table episode brought the argument to a mainstream global audience and is cited by food writers as a turning point in how Indian food is discussed outside South Asia.
Within the current London generation she sits alongside Clare Smyth at Core in Notting Hill and Santiago Lastra at KOL in Marylebone as chefs who have reshaped how immigrant and regional cuisines are presented at the top end of the London market. Her peers internationally include Dominique Crenn at Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, who has run a comparable public argument about women in fine dining from the West Coast.
Asma Khan FAQ
Where is Darjeeling Express?
At the top floor of Kingly Court, off Carnaby Street in Soho, London, with 96 covers. In January 2026, Shaftesbury Capital confirmed the restaurant will relocate to a 5,600-sq-ft, 130-cover, two-storey space at 36-40 Rupert Street in Soho’s Chinatown in the coming months. The new site is the former Hovarda location.
Is the kitchen really all female?
Yes. Since opening in 2017, Darjeeling Express has had an entirely female kitchen staffed by South Asian immigrant women. Most of the team were not professionally trained and many were second daughters. At opening all held full-time jobs elsewhere; as the restaurant grew, many were able to transition to full-time food careers.
Was Asma Khan on Chef’s Table?
Yes. Khan was the first British chef ever profiled on Netflix’s Chef’s Table, featured in season 6 in February 2019. The episode was directed by Zia Mandviwalla and the season was nominated for an Emmy in the outstanding documentary category. Reservations at Darjeeling Express became considerably harder to secure after the episode aired.
What is Second Daughters?
Khan’s charitable initiative supporting the education of second daughters in India, a response to the experience she and many of her kitchen team share of being born to families that had wanted a son. A percentage of all Darjeeling Express proceeds goes to the initiative.
Has Asma Khan written cookbooks?
Yes, three to date. Asma’s Indian Kitchen, Darjeeling Express, and Ammu (2022, built around her mother’s recipes). Monsoon, her third cookbook on seasonal Indian home cooking, is promoted on the Darjeeling Express website. Khan has also appeared on Celebrity MasterChef and Top Chef, and in 2025 hosts the 10-episode Food Network series Secrets of the Curry Kitchen.
What is next for Asma Khan
Following the January 2026 announcement of the Rupert Street move, Khan is in the design stage for the new two-storey, 130-cover Darjeeling Express with architect Alessio Nardi and the same team that has been with her since 2017. Menu planning is underway. She has signalled plans to host hard-hat supper club events at the new site before the full opening. Her Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation patronage and her Food Network series continue alongside the restaurant move. Her public Instagram (@asmakhanlondon) is the best source for current updates.
