Beyond the Plate with Asma Khan

Le Cordon Bleu London recently caught up with Chef Asma Khan for the third episode of their podcast, Beyond the Plate: Industry Talks by Le Cordon Bleu.

Asma is best known as a restaurateur, chef and author, also starring in an episode of Netflix's Chef's Table. Asma did not originally set out to be a chef, having trained as a lawyer and graduating with a PhD in British Constitutional Law in 2012. Her culinary journey began when she started hosting supper clubs from her home, and eventually ended up moving to a pub in Soho serving lunch. Getting to grips with a professional kitchen proved challenging and the residency wasn’t an immediate hit, but a glowing review from Fay Maschler helped bring the customers in.

Eventually Asma was offered the opportunity to compete for a lease in Soho and, after some setbacks, she opened Darjeeling Express offering Indian Rajput and Bengali home cooking specialties in Soho. Darjeeling Express features an all-female kitchen team - something that Asma is very passionate about and discusses in the episode. The restaurant recently closed its doors whilst it looks for a new premises, but in the meantime there is Asma’s book Ammu: Indian Home-Cooking to Nourish Your Soul, which was released in 2022 to great reception.

In this podcast, Asma discusses the challenges she faced when starting out in the industry, the issue of gender inequality in the hospitality industry and her role in paving the way for future female restaurateurs. Discover more episodes of Beyond the Plate: Industry Talks by Le Cordon Bleu and hear from hospitality experts, chefs and more.