From immigrant to celebrity chef. It is the story of Asma Kahn (Calcutta, 1969), head of London’s Darjeeling Express, the successful restaurant that even has an episode in the acclaimed Netflix series Chef’s Table. Lawyer, self-taught cook and “warrior”, as she defines herself; Her history in gastronomy began in 2012, when she decided to host clandestine dinners in the living room of her house to feel closer to her native India.
Fame came to him, however, in 2017 with the opening of Darjeeling Express. This establishment quickly made headlines, not only for its delicious biryani, but also for creating job opportunities for immigrant Indian women recently landed in London. With Kahn’s idea, she soon won awards and recognition, until Vogue magazine even included her in the list of the 25 most influential women on the planet.
Energetic, enthusiastic and rebellious like few others – when something bothers her, even though she is Muslim, she does not hesitate for a moment to challenge the patriarchy; Khan welcomes us in Rome a few hours before his speech at the latest edition of Parabere Forum.
– Today is 8-M, International Women’s Day. For someone like you, what does sorority mean?
– Darjeeling Express, more than a restaurant, is a collective of women in which we support each other and help each other grow. Sisterhood for me is being stronger together. I had a good education, I come from a very good family, my children have never gone hungry… But the women who work in my kitchen have had problems, they have gone hungry, their children have also had a bad time, they have suffered sexual abuse and psychics. In short, they carry terrible stories related to poverty behind them. That’s why for me, your success is more important than mine.
– She has been helping Indian immigrant women forge a path in the London restaurant scene for over 18 years. Have things changed a little since you started doing it until today?
Being a woman, an immigrant and an Indian in England today is even more difficult than before. He thinks that many of these women have never gone to school and when they arrive in a city like London, without networks of contacts, they feel scared, isolated, they see themselves in problems, and on top of that everything is very expensive. It’s a big change.
-How do these women get to London?
– There are different stories. Some by marriage, others are wives of Nepalese Gurkha soldiers… Each one arrives in a different way. There are also those who come to England only to study and once here they see that their expenses are so high that they have no choice but to start working.
– You grew up in a wealthy family in Kolkata and experienced the stigma of being the second daughter. In other words, it would be very complicated to marry her unlike these women…
– In Indian culture, the birth of a male child is always viewed better than that of a female. The reason is patriarchy. All the family’s assets (the house, savings, properties) end up in the hands of the man, since he will be the one who transmits the family name to his descendants. Women are left with nothing except dowry. And this dowry is very expensive for families.
In addition, there is the question of honor, the concern of having to find a good family to marry one’s daughter to, with financial resources. It’s too much pressure. That’s why, when the first child is born and it’s a girl, everyone says: “Well, don’t worry, the next one will be a boy.” And there I was born, in a place where everyone was looking for the blessed son…
– Was it traumatic for you?
– Yes, there were those who asked my father in front of me: “When will your family be complete?” The system in India is very cruel. And I think living through all this pressure made me much more masculine. I played like children, sometimes I behaved like a child, many times I thought: “I wish I were a boy because my parents don’t have a son.” All of this not only continues to happen today in India, but in any corner of the planet to which Indian immigrants have made pilgrimages, because the culture is still very closed.
– She found a husband in Oxford, studying at the university.
– It made me happy to find him because he respected my intellect (laughs). In Indian society your entire value depends on your status and how rich you are. Nobody pays attention to whether a woman is beautiful, powerful, if she speaks well… Or also, if on the contrary, she is destructive, rude, not respectable. I am both, look at me, she looks at how I’m dressed. But I don’t drink alcohol and there are many rules that, as a Muslim, I do follow. Unfortunately in India, women are either completely subjugated by patriarchy or isolated for not following tradition.
– The number of rapes in India is now one of the highest on the planet, about 90 occur a day…
– It is part of the problem of how families look at their daughters, because when a small boy sees the crime that a woman is born into, he evidently already internalizes all the machismo. They see that they are not equal, that they are less. If he thinks, “I’m better than my sister, much more important,” what can we expect?
On the other hand, in India, people are very exposed to pornography, because the society is very traditional. They can’t meet women and there is frustration. It is a difficult question, because religion does recognize women as goddesses, but at home they are not. Only in the temple.
– He started cooking recipes from his country only after immigrating to England. In fact, on some occasion he has commented that when he realized that he did not know how to make any of the dishes of his youth, he decided to return to India to learn. Because?
– When I immigrated, the aromas of Indian spices filled me with memories, they took me back home. Cooking family recipes made me feel free.
– Even so, he has even said that when he started organizing clandestine dinners at his house, long before Indian cuisine became fashionable in London, he was afraid of disappointing his children.
– Yes. The system tells us all the time that we have to be successful and I was afraid of failing. When you are young, people always give you an adjective: “You are the smartest” or “the most handsome”, or “the most creative”… Everyone told me that I was the most intelligent; even if my sister was much more so than me. But since she was prettier, no one paid attention to her intelligence. I decided to study law because, as it was “the list” of the family; I believed that was my duty. And no, it wasn’t. I am a creative person and I can talk about politics as well as cooking; but at that moment I believed that if I became a cook everyone would make fun of me, precisely because I had the “intelligent” label attached to me. Cooking was not considered smart work.
– Many of the women who work with you at Darjeeling Express do so as nannies, housewives, with European families, strangers in a foreign land.
– Yes, and that is why food politics is very present in the restaurant. I want the diner, when trying our dishes, to not only think about Indian cuisine, which is super fashionable, but about the stories behind that cuisine. In slavery, in hunger, in the things that are important to me. May he understand where we come from, the color of our skin.
I’m going to give you an example, which has nothing to do with India, but which explains it very well. In the US everyone loves Mexican cuisine, tacos, guacamole… But at the same time they are killing Mexicans. If you hate those people, don’t eat their food.
– You cook Indian recipes, but you do not use traveled products such as okra or jackfruit. What led you to make this decision?
– I don’t do it because I know that farmers are suffering and, furthermore, the products come on airplanes wrapped in plastic wrap. I do a fusion, I use British ingredients to prepare traditional Indian food.
– You say that for you, more important than ego is that people feel embraced in your restaurant. Something that other cooks have said many times. Because?
– Men cook to impress, as if it were a boxing match. They work very hard, they don’t sleep. It’s very physical. Women cook with feminine energy, softly, with gentleness. We cook to heal, to nourish.
– Cooking has always connected with spirituality…
– The relationship is very strong. Food, whatever religion you belong to, has always been linked to sharing with neighbors, it has always been linked to generosity. “Make your table big, bring people to it to feed and nourish it…” All religious festivals are linked to food. Easter, Christmas, Holy, Ramadan… Everything always revolves around cooking.
Spirituality is part of my identity. I am Muslim, an immigrant, a woman… And yet I am a war.
– He told me before that no one can tell us what we should be, because we can be everything at the same time.
– Oneself has to feel comfortable in one’s own skin. I feel comfortable with who I am and I think that’s how any woman should feel. It doesn’t matter how you dress, how many followers you have on Instagram, if you’re gay… None of this identifies you. She is the one who has to write her own story of her life.