Mukherjee, Kamalika (28 August 2020). "How Chef Asma Khan Created an All-Women Kitchen". Condé Nast Traveler . Retrieved 21 January 2021. Refugees are treated poorly. People of colour and LGBTQ minorities [face] discrimination. There is a disconnection between what is taken and enjoyed from other cultures and how people from those cultures are treated.” As well as creating a place for incredible Indian food, Asma has made Darjeeling Express into much more than a restaurant. It’s a platform for social change – a neon billboard to tell women everywhere that their skills are worth celebrating. Asma is the first British chef to ever be featured on Netflix's Chef's Table, and she used her exposure to the fullest. ‘I want to talk about race and about the absolute imbalance of female representation in kitchens. I want to leave a powerful ripple so people will see that it’s possible for them to succeed too, no matter how inferior they are made to feel.’ Asma Khan (2019). Asma's Indian Kitchen: Home-Cooked Food Brought to You by Darjeeling Express. Interlink Publishing Group, Incorporated. ISBN 978-1-62371-912-8.

Asma Khan Chef - Great British Chefs Asma Khan Chef - Great British Chefs

Asma Khan (in red) and her team at the Darjeeling Express restaurant in 2017. Photograph: Alex Lake/The Observer Bilgrami, Rida (4 October 2018). "Why London's Immigrant Chefs Are Embracing Supper Clubs". Eater. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018 . Retrieved 19 July 2019. Coming from a family of originally Iranian origins, Ausma Zehanat Khan was raised in the United Kingdom after her parents moved there from Canada. This much information is usually enough to inform the reader of the possible routes her work might have taken, and he might be correct in guessing that she has chosen the noblest and most humanitarian pursuit in the way she has chosen to portray and develop her stories. Having received a doctorate degree in International Human Rights Law, after which she served as adjunct professor in universities both in the United States of America and in Canada, she seems even better equipped to talk about the subject of liberty in a world torn by prejudice and discrimination. That her life has been filled with experiences that corroborate and enrich her perspectives and feed a rich well of knowledge on it is something the reader might also reasonably guess.

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Brehault, Laura (3 October 2019). " 'You cannot be what you cannot see': Chef's Table star Asma Khan dishes on time-honoured Indian recipes and turning opportunity into advocacy". National Post . Retrieved 6 May 2020. Vines, Richard (21 March 2020). "Coronavirus Shatters One Chef's Dream of Helping Immigrant Women". www.bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on 22 March 2020 . Retrieved 6 May 2020. London's Cult-Favorite Indian Restaurant Is a Love Letter to Second Daughters". Food & Wine. Archived from the original on 16 April 2018 . Retrieved 19 July 2019. The thing about Asma Khan is not just that her food is divine, but that cooking is such a deep expression of her true self. Her hard work, her generosity, her sense of ready connection with others, her direct and full-throttle character, which seeks to lift up and nourish those around her, are all immediately apparent when you eat her food at her restaurant, Darjeeling Express, or when you read her words or follow her recipes. That is such a gift. One of the brightest stars of London's restaurant scene, Asma Khan stands tall as an inspirational figure in food, astounding diners with sumptuous Indian cookery from her own Darjeeling Express and relentlessly pushing the boundaries as an advocate for social change. But things were not always so easy – Asma’s journey to the top has had its fair share of twists and turns.

Asma Khan on food, legacy and the lessons her mother gave her Asma Khan on food, legacy and the lessons her mother gave her

Khan had an arranged marriage and immediately afterward moved with her husband to Cambridge in 1991. [8] She had never learned to cook [9] and missed the dishes she had grown up eating. [10] She first started learning to cook from an aunt who lived in Cambridge. [11] After her aunt died, Khan returned to India for a visit of a few months [10] to continue lessons with her mother and the family's cook. [11] [12] She told Francis Lam that learning to cook from her mother helped their relationship. [6] Khan’s loud and sensational arrival as “just a middle-aged housewife” seems to have come with a mission statement that demands respect for the food, culture and female cooks of south Asia. One that hasn’t always translated from high street curry houses, where dishes have often been bastardised for western palates. While the successes of Gymkhana, Benares, Dishoom and the like have revived an appreciation for how delicate and layered Indian dishes can be, south Asian restaurants often still have kitchens exclusively staffed by men in an industry dominated by them.

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GOURMAND AWARDS". www.cookbookfair.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2019 . Retrieved 18 July 2019. Khan was approached by Brian McGinn, producer of Chef's Table, to be the first British chef profiled on the series. [11] [7] Filming started in London and India in July 2018 with Zia Mandviwalla directing. [11] [14] 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." [11] The programme first aired in February 2019. Khan is the first British chef to be featured. [3] [4] [11] [13] The series' sixth season's theme is "the journey home". [13] The season, which included Khan's episode, was nominated for an Emmy in the outstanding documentary section. [24] According to Bloomberg it became difficult to get a reservation at Darjeeling Express after the series aired. [25] My deep concern during the pandemic is seeing very prominent people with considerable wealth remove the entire workforce without a safety net.” A surge of restaurant and pub workers were reported to be sleeping rough in central London in April, a fact Khan can’t shake. “It is so shameful, my heart bleeds for the industry, it is immoral. I don’t want restaurants to be ranked by Michelin stars for the fluff and edible herbs they put on a plate. I want to know how they treat their people, they should be ranked on that. Where there is bullying and racism, where there is sexual harassment, where staff don’t feel safe, people should boycott those restaurants. I don’t want to see them prosper.” a b c d e f greatbritishchefs. "Asma Khan Chef - Great British Chefs". www.greatbritishchefs.com . Retrieved 18 July 2019. Darjeeling Express brings authentic home cooking to the fore. A real-deal “like mamma used to make it” menu because, in Khan’s kitchen, there is no other way: in a departure from convention and perceived wisdom, her team is made up solely of women who have only ever cooked at home. It’s a club of housewives and nannies, none of whom have had any professional training or experience. I hope everything I do makes it easier for another woman of colour to know she can dream and rise

Asma Khan - Review - London Unattached Ammu - Asma Khan - Review - London Unattached

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From the book: Ammu: Indian Home-Cooking To Nourish Your Soul

On that basis, it bodes well. Last year, Khan set up a cafe in a refugee camp in northern Iraq employing traumatised Yazidi women. Most Sundays, she has given over the restaurant for free to other novice female chefs to host their own supper clubs. As her swansong in Soho she has negotiated a deal with her landlord so that the remainder of her current lease is secured for Imad Alarnab, a refugee chef whose Syrian Kitchen has been running as a pop-up across London for the last couple of years. Asma Khan among women celebrated at Urban Food Awards 2019". Evening Standard. 21 March 2019 . Retrieved 18 July 2019.