A taste of Calcutta in London: The story behind Asma Khan's restaurant Darjeeling Express

Indian Express

4 days ago

The jam-packed streets of Soho in Westminster, London, reflect the city's vibrant diaspora and multiculturalism. From Chinese to Thai and Italian, the area offers a global gastronomic tour in just a few blocks. Among these flavours, tucked on the top floor of Kingly Court, is Darjeeling Express, a restaurant known for its Mughlai and Bengali cuisine
Established in 2017, it is run by a team of all-women chefs and has a menu that remains proudly consistent. 'There are some restaurants that can change the menu and get away with it. We get people crying and screaming at us. We're quite trapped because we can't really change things,' says Asma Khan in an interview with indianexpress.com.
Asma, an India-born British restaurateur, began her journey by hosting intimate 'supper clubs' at her home. Today, her restaurant, Darjeeling Express, stands tall among London's Michelin-starred dining spots. So how did a home cook open one of London's most popular Indian restaurants?
Asma comes from a family with royal lineage. Her father, Farrukh Said Khan, was a Muslim Rajput, while her mother, Faizana Khan, was of mixed Bengali and Bihari heritage. 'My nana (maternal grandfather) was my father's landlord when he was posted to Calcutta working for General Electric Company (GEC),' says Asma, adding, 'he was quite a regal-looking man with his huge moustache, and my nana was impressed.'
She explains that while the matrimonial alliance was formed, little was discussed about the practicalities of the marriage itself. 'My mother had never eaten roti in her life. She loved fish and rice. My father, interestingly, sees fish and gets scared. And he doesn't eat rice. There were also language and other differences. But they got married.'
Asma was born in the family's Elliot Road home in 1969. 'I remember waking up with the sound of the trams,' she says. 'I must have been two and a half years old when a crow took my food while I was eating on the verandah; that's my first memory of food.'
The family then moved to Hyderabad due to Farrukh Said Khan's transfer. 'My brother was born there. Then we went to Madras (present-day Chennai).' The Khans lived opposite former chief minister Jayalalithaa's house. 'At that time, she used to call us her Bengali neighbours. And we used to climb on the wall, and she used to give us sweets.'
Asma reiterates that they always identified with Calcutta and being Bengali. 'Even though I am technically only a quarter Bengali.'
Asma says that her maternal grandfather and two of his brothers married women from Bihar. Her grandmothers, with their entourage of cooks, ayahs, and drivers, all spoke in Hindi or Urdu. 'So sadly, the Bengali language kind of slipped off. But from a very young age, I identified strongly with Calcutta. This was home for me.'
1974 brought some good news for the Khans as Farrukh Said Khan was transferred to Calcutta. 'I remember my father's tears when he came in and said he had been transferred. Everyone was silent. I remember that emotion.' The family was both excited and relieved to return to Calcutta, she describes. 'A sense of homecoming…We were going home! And that is a feeling that I relate to even now.'
Initially, Asma's mother thought of taking cooking classes. However, luck, according to Asma, landed her a catering contract at the Tata Centre. 'That was her first catering job… the rest is history.' She soon began catering at some of the city's most popular clubs — Tollygunge Club, Royal Calcutta Turf Club, and Calcutta Cricket and Football Club. Meanwhile, Asma attended La Martiniere School on Rawdon Street and later, Loreto College on Park Street.
'There was a very different sense of equality at that time in the 80s. Calcutta in the 80s and 90s was an incredible space,' says Asma, adding that one felt protected and valued.
That feeling of protection wasn't the only thing that Asma loves about Calcutta. Food was central to her growing years. She talks about the 'rolls at Badshah in New Market, the chana bhatura and tutti frutti at Kwality on Park Street, the dosa at Jyoti Bihar, and the Chinese at the Taj Hotel.' That wasn't all. The American chop suey at Bar-B-Q is unmatched, although the queue to get a place is terribly long,' she laughs. For sweets, she names K.C. Das on Chowringhee, and for mishti doi (sweetened yogurt), Khan recalls visiting Mithai on Park Circus.
She also explains the colonial influence on her family's food. 'My mother cooked a lot of continental food… She made Chicken à la Kiev, a prawn cocktail inspired from what was served at popular joints such as Sky Room, Mocambo, and Trincas on Park Street.' Having spoken at length and passionately about Calcutta's food, Asma says, 'All the Indian Chinese food in the rest of India is horrible. Calcutta Indian Chinese is really Indian Chinese.' Pausing for a few seconds, she utters excitedly…'And then, this kind of fabulous Dhaba culture – the chicken bharta, which is such a Calcutta thing. It's the adding of eggs to chicken. It's the combination of the Punjabi trucker and the Bengali kind of sentiments.'
From a supper club to Darjeeling Express
What remains in Calcutta for Asma is a house. 'My parents moved back to Aligarh, and my ancestral home on Elliot Road was demolished.' However, Asma bought a flat in the newly built apartment at the same place. 'I was the last granddaughter to be married from that house. And my mother was born in that house. So that link to that house was so great. In some ways, it's nice that I have a flat on the 11th floor.'
Asma and her husband left Calcutta in 1991 for the United Kingdom. Years later, she began a supper club at home. 'I served chicken chop, rezala, kosha mangsho (dry chicken), gughni (chickpeas), luchi, aloo dum, and biryani.'
'People must have a desire to try good food,' she explains as her purpose behind the supper clubs. In 2017, she turned the supper club into a restaurant, retaining the name Darjeeling Express. 'My supper club was called Darjeeling Express after the toy trains in Darjeeling, which I cherished very much. Moreover, I thought my clients should know that it's by the same person. Otherwise, I would not call it this,' she laughs.
Everything about the restaurant is designed to reflect Calcutta — walls painted in warm yellow hues, adorned with family portraits of the Khans and their home on Elliot Road, and a menu curated from Khan's favourite picks in the city. Although the eatery offers three varieties: à la carte lunch, pre-theatre menu, and set menu dinner, what remains constant are the tangra prawns, puchkas, niramish (a Bengali term for a vegetarian dish), prawn malaikari, and kosha mangsho.
There is a cocktail called Jhal (a Bengali term for spicy) and a mocktail Jhalphoron. For dessert, Asma's restaurant serves the iconic Bhapa Doi, steamed yogurt. The locals and tourists alike flock to eat these dishes, resisting any change. 'That's what Calcutta food does to one,' she says gleefully.
From the menu, Asma says, the favourites are kosha mangsho followed by prawn malai curry. 'Ta-da! Both Bengali dishes. These are our top favourites.' The next favourite is Calcutta biryani. When asked to describe it, she says, 'It is mild, fragrant. It does not contain too many spices, and the biggest thing is that the rice is not sticky. It's just separated.' Khan's favourite element of the biryani is the aloo (potato). 'The potato is better than the meat and the rice. All the flavour has gone into it. Best thing in the world. If that's the last meal of my life, I don't want the biryani. I just want the aloo.'
'And no city in the world, and I have travelled the world, for me, compares to Calcutta,' she asserts. 'I wish the government would do more. The state government would do more to promote tourism. I am tired of people coming to my restaurant and saying, Oh, I've been to India, I've been to Kerala, I've gone to see the Taj Mahal. I ask: Why have you not gone to see Calcutta? Our colonial history, our Bengali heritage, the beautiful stories about the synagogue, Nahoum's, you've got the Armenian tradition, you've got this amazing Muslim food as well as Indian Chinese (food). We have everything in the world but not tourists.'
Asma expresses her desire to give back to the city that gave her an identity. 'I am willing to do it for free… to encourage people to put Calcutta as a destination. You cannot understand India if you do not understand and have not eaten in a city like Calcutta. It's the food capital of India and of the world.'
On her plans for Darjeeling Express, Asma says she wanted to do something in Kolkata. 'In the West, I have achieved a lot. I need to go home. But in which way and how, I don't know. But the calling is very, very strong. The desire to go back is there. I want to go back when I can be of help. I want to go back when I still have the fire and I'm physically strong and I have the creative energy. Because the city has given me everything. I am what I am because of Calcutta. I also want to do something for Calcutta.'
'The Calcutta I grew up in,' Asma says in a low voice, 'has changed…I feel lost now'. Buildings demolished, streets renamed, modes of transportation modernised, and people more aloof. 'Yet,' she notes, sounding positive, 'the food remains the same – the best in the world.'