'I create poetry no one will ever read'
One of the UK's most prominent female chefs, an unstoppable force for social change and now with her own TV show, Asma Khan, shares her day well spent.
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I am delighted to bring to you the next interview on A Day Well Spent where every few weeks, I ask someone who inspires me, interests me and embodies the ethos of this newsletter, 15 quickfire questions.
There is so much to say about Asma Khan that I don’t really know where to begin or how I will possibly fit it all into my self-imposed three paragraph introduction.
But I’ll try my damdest.
Asma is an Indian-born British restaurateur and is one of the UK's most prominent female chefs. She is an unstoppable force for social change in the food industry and is passionate about using her platform to give women from diverse backgrounds more opportunities to succeed.
Her Michelin Guide-nominated restaurant off London’s Carnaby Street, Darjeeling Express, has been disrupting the industry since it opened in 2017 by daring to employ a revolutionary all-female kitchen team.
It’s become a favourite amongst Hollywood A-listers and royalty and I do not quite understand how the food seems to get even better each time I eat there — the graph needs to plateau at some point!
TIME magazine named Asma one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2024. She serves as a chef advocate for the UN World Food Programme and has received honorary fellowships from Queen’s College, Oxford, and King’s College London, where she also holds a PhD in British Constitutional Law.
Asma was the first British chef to be featured on Netflix’s Emmy-nominated Chef’s Table and is currently working on Tiffin Stories, a six-part series exploring food and memories. In May 2025, her 10-episode series Secrets of the Curry Kitchen premiered on the Food Network.
In 2025, she became the first patron of the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation, furthering her dedication to food justice and social change.
Asma wants to make all women feel seen and thanked. She has always wanted to be the storyteller and she sees her mission as greater than her and bigger even than the South Asian community.
But ultimately, Asma Khan is my friend.
It has been the most beautiful thing to witness her flourish whilst never ceasing to use her voice to fight the injustices of the world, since I first ate her heartfelt food in the supper club she hosted in her home over a decade ago.
Hard fail at the three paragraph intro but it all needed to be said. Please enjoy this interview with dear Asma. May she forever remain a force for good to be reckoned with.
1. What makes up a day well spent for you?
My ideal day is spent in the courtyard in India, in my parents’ home, sitting and listening to my father tell stories of dragons, jinns and heroes and heroines of the past; listening to stories of people I wish I had met.
Listening to him bring life to all these historical characters, spending time drinking chai and (if I’m lucky) having my mother cut mangoes he had picked and selected in perfect slices
2. What compliment have you received in recent times that's stuck in your memory?
Every time a young South Asian — especially a South Asian boy — stops to tell me I made them realise they had always taken their mother and her food for granted, it sticks with me.
I’ve had people tell me that thanks to me, they were able to express their gratitude in their mother’s lifetime. This is priceless. The idea that something I have said has broken a generational cycle of thanklessness means so much.
3. What quotes or mantras do you try to live by?
If I cannot do any good, I will try not to harm anyone.
I never try to compete with people and do not look at what they are doing. I have no pangs of jealousy, anger or resentment and wish no harm to anyone else on my journey.
4. What practical skill do you have that you value the most?
Speed reading! I developed this skill whilst doing my first degree.
I’ve learned to read things at a glance and pick up the important words — my lawyers are always horrified with how fast I read legal documents.
This has allowed me to do my PhD and it’s helped me throughout life, not just academia.
5. What do you know today that you wish you'd known five years ago?
I wish I had known that there are people around me who may be unable to understand that, irrespective of how it may seem, I have always stayed the same.
I wish I understood that some of my friends at the time were looking at my success as me changing. It would have been much easier to deal with, when people became different towards me because of this.
In many ways, I am the same person I was five years ago.
6. What character or personality trait about yourself do you value the most?
I value that I am deeply spiritual and I am able to take knocks in life.
My belief that night is never endless and day will always come keeps me grounded and has allowed me to cope with the hurdles and tests that I have faced.
7. What does 'eating well' mean to you and how do you manage it?
Cooking nourishing food for yourself is an act of self-love.
This is something that I seriously struggle with, given my current schedule. The last meal I had time to cook for myself was the sheer korma I made on Eid and posted to Instagram.
This meal felt like an embrace, and I hope to cook like this for myself more in the near future.
8. What is your ultimate dream?
I want to spend some of my life close to nature. Close to trees, surrounded by the sound of flowing water, watching sunrise and sunset, growing my own food and flowers and watching them bloom.
9. What's your most loved skincare / beauty product or secret?
Hair oil, I absolutely love pure coconut oil.
This is a memory from childhood, my mother making me sit in the sun and oiling my hair – it’s a luxury now to find someone to oil my hair.
Every time I go home my mother sits me down and lovingly oils my hair and tuts that the dry climate in the UK has dried it out, “Look at your hair, look how dry it is!”.
Oiling is deeply transformative for your hair, especially in the British winter!
10. How do you counter the fast-paced and immediate nature of today's world?
I always find a bit of time every day to listen to music. It doesn’t necessarily have to be something soothing and meditative; it can be 80s pop.
It is the time I take to choose music that matches my mood. It is deeply calming — the music makes me smile, it makes me cry.
I listen to Sufi music in times of darkness; I have always found a lot of hope in the lyrics of Qawwali.
11. What are your hobbies and interests? What do you like to do in your free time?
I create poetry no one will ever read. It is often not even written down and interestingly it’s not in English, Hindi or my mother tongue, Urdu. I write in a mix of everything, it’s from the East and West.
I also love doing nothing! I love sitting in bed, staring out into the nothingness, it’s a luxury I seldom get. But I use that time to help me understand the world. This is my ‘thinking time’.
12. What's the latest thing that you have learnt?
So far not very successfully, but in my old age I am learning how to swim.
I have learned how not to panic getting into the pool and putting my head under water. This is the latest skill that I am learning, and I hope to one day learn how to swim properly.
13. Tell us about something you tried or did for the very first time recently
I have finally decided it is about time I do some weight training.
I have started by cycling on a stationary fan bike. But I’m starting to lift weights with my son who has been roped into training me and is encouraging me to lift weights for my bone density.
I have literally just started.
LK - I feel like it would be remiss for me to not sign-post to these two articles at this point:
14. What book should everyone read and why?
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry has so many lessons — the simplicity of relationships, love and loss.
I remembered so much of this book as I watched my brother fade and eventually pass away in his battle with cancer.
From that book, for all of us, there will be a moment where you see yourself — that is when this media is at its most poignant.
15. What are you working on that we should know about?
We are just about to change to a summer menu at my restaurant Darjeeling Express, we are now going for a three-course meal instead of our thali.
I’m very aware that going out is a luxury for many and I wanted to make the evening a bit more special by slowing things down and allowing people to enjoy a multi-course meal.
I have also written my first children’s book which is (surprise surprise!) about food and is coming out in America — I wish I could say more but we will have to wait!
I am also looking to do something different in the food scene overseas — watch this space!
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