Nothing beats food of Puran Dhaka and biyebarir biryani: Asma Khan

If one were to meet celebrity chef Asma Khan, the first thing you would notice, besides her lush curly hair and a vibrant nose pin, is that she wears a lot of colours. From fuchsia pink to turquoise, emerald green to golden yellow, oozing peach to marine blue – I gather she loves wearing colours as if to match her diverse cultural exposure.

Asma Khan is one of the most celebrated Indian-born British restaurateurs and cookbook authors. Her all-women Indian restaurant Darjeeling Express in London's Soho has earned a global reputation, reflected in the multitudes of features across mainstream media.

Recently, Asma Khan became the first British chef to be featured on the sixth season of the documentary series Chef's Table.

"Darjeeling Express started as a dinner for 12 guests at my home, serving food cooked from family recipes that go back generations. The food is a true homage to my royal Mughlai ancestry and the busy streets of Calcutta, where I grew up," she said.

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Her book Ammu: Food to Nourish Your Soul, from a Life of Cooking, was chosen as the British newspaper The Times 'Cookbook of the Year 2022.'

In the same year, Asma was appointed the Chef Advocate for the United Kingdom (a WFP Goodwill Ambassador) by the UN World Food Programme and an Honorary Fellow of the Queen's College, Oxford.

Most recently in 2024, she was named one of the year's 100 most influential people by Time Magazine. In a recent phone conversation, we delved into the person behind the international acclaim and her connection to Bangladesh.

Born in a palace, Asma's journey to the culinary craft

Born to royalty, Asma grew up in Calcutta.

Asma's mother, Faizana Said Khan is from West Bengal and the great, great-granddaughter of the Nawab of Jalpaiguri. Her father Farrukh Said Khan is from Uttar Pradesh in India and the grandson of Ahmed Said Khan, the Nawab of Chhatari of Uttar Pradesh in India.

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Her father mostly lived in Aligarh where both her parents currently reside.

Her father is a Muslim Rajput, descended from a warrior tribe, and her mother is a Muslim Bangali. "It's rare in India for people to marry outside of their region, but it has been a huge, huge benefit to me because I inherited the culture and tradition of two powerful styles of cuisine," she said.

Though her parents came from two separate royal families, she grew up in a very normal household. Both her parents worked. "My mother ran a catering business and I would spend hours in the kitchen helping her," she said.  Years later, she has now made the dishes famous.

But why did she choose to cook? "I cooked to go home, to feel the presence of Ammu," she replied.

After marrying Mushtaq Khan, a Bangladesh-born economist, the couple moved to Cambridge in the United Kingdom in 1991. "I missed the food, the conversation that we had around food. Every lunchtime, the discussion was: what are we going to eat for dinner?"

Not just that, at dinner the conversation was dominated by what leftovers could be devoured for breakfast with paratha and egg, or which of the food dishes to repeat.

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"There used to be literally two types of cuisine on the table. Abba [someone who did not like rice] always ate chapati, Ammu always ate rice, and we ate something in between. While my fussy brother Arif needed something special made for him, I needed something that didn't have much chilis in it.

And then my mother had a catering business. So there was a huge range of food that I was exposed to from my childhood," Asma recounted. 

She remembers watching her mother cook and explain the recipes. "I was so blessed to learn to cook with instinct 'andaaz', 'a touch of this', 'wait till it's done,' smelling the aromas of spices, and listening for changes in how the ingredients sizzled."

Asma's nani (maternal grandmother) was Bihari. The Bihari food influence was strong in the household. "I believe Bihari Muslim food is even better than Lucknow's food because there's not that heavy cream and nuts," Asma remarked. 

It was a 1992 summer vacation in India when Asma learned to cook from her mother. Soon enough, returning to her Cambridge home, she started to cook on her own.

About two decades passed when Asma started her "supper clubs" — it was like a dinner party where people could get to eat authentic Indian food for £35, and it eventually became popular in the community.

In 2013, Asma earned her PhD degree in law from the King's College of London, but it was her diverse cultural background and extraordinary crafts in culinary art that cemented her journey in the world of food.

In the summer of 2017, Asma launched Darjeeling Express. It went into a hiatus during the Covid year and opened again in February 2023 — this time on a bigger scale at Kingly Court in London.

"Now the situation is different where people watch Masterchef and they want to cook. But 20 years ago, nobody wanted to cook. And when I wanted to cook, there was no honour, no money. The world has changed and food has become now heroic."

Asma's connection to Bangladesh

Asma's maternal grandfather had seven brothers. Four of them came to Bangladesh in the 1960s. She has many cousins and uncles in Bangladesh. Her elder sister Amna Rahman is married here and has been living in Dhaka for 35 years.

Amna Rahman is currently working as the vice president of Thrive, a non-government organisation that feeds school-going children. Her cousin Sadia Moyeen who grew up in Jaipur, runs Labelle, a beauty parlour in Dhaka. Another cousin, Sarah Karim is the owner of the fashion brand Sarah Karim Couture.

Asma's husband Dr Mushtaq is originally from Chattagram and her mother-in-law still lives in Dhaka.

"I love the food of Bangladesh. I tell everybody that the best biryani is the kacchi biryani of a Bangladesh wedding. In Dhaka, whenever I go, I go to all the weddings I am not invited to, just to have the kacchi biriyani with the biyebarir roast and jali kabab.

The food of old Dhaka and the wedding food cannot be beaten," she added.

Biriyani reminds Asma of her childhood. "Throughout the whole of winter, my mother used to do catering for weddings, and she made a lot of biryani. Biryani used to be made in my house for every other occasion," Asma said.

According to her, even though biryani seems like a complicated dish, it is the most efficient. It's a kitchen dish to feed a lot of people at the same time.

"And paratha is my favourite comfort food! Decades ago when I could not cook- the aroma from a home where someone was cooking paratha made me very emotional. I was overwhelmed," she said, with a glint of nostalgia creaking through her voice. 

Asma explained that in Bengal, there are two cuisines – one is the Bangali cuisine with a lot of fish, mustard oil, daal, bhat and very simple vegetarian (niramish) dishes. And on very special occasions in West Bengal, kosha mangsho and luchi. There is also an entire range of Muslim food – resala, chicken chaap, biriyani.

"There has always been a difference in the food that you get in Bangladesh and the food you get in West Bengal. It has nothing to do with partition. It has always been there," she remarked.

But she does not think food divides people, rather there is more to food that unites us.

One place that she goes to in Dhaka with her sister is Roll Express Cafe in Banani, to have roll and chaat. She loves having all the kinds of mishti, sweets that come from everywhere. 

"I mostly visit Dhaka in winter, when the nolen gurer sondesh is available. I will eat all that up.  Another thing that I like very much about Dhaka food is the paneer or cheese and bakar khani," she added.

Asma is likely to visit her mother-in-law in June. After her younger brother passed away from cancer recently, she has not been to the country for a long time.