Inspiration for International Women’s Day
“ I run my own ship and when the hurdles come I know I will jump it and I will win every time. I am not timing myself or setting expectations for my team or myself. They are driven by a desire to succeed, the need to be unique, interesting and make good food.”
Image courtesy of @yeschefhq
This International Women’s Day we wanted to highlight a female chef that we feel is a true inspiration and paves the way on equity for women and rewriting the rulebook in the hospitality industry. Asma Khan is the founder and Chef of Darjeeling Express, London’s acclaimed Indian restaurant and is legendary for various reasons, from her infamous biryani to her all female kitchen. We had the pleasure of sitting down with her for a chat.
What we love is she acknowledges barriers in the industry but goes one step further… she actually DOES something to overcome them. One of which is the way the shift structure is set up. She says, “There is absolutely no justification, when lunch and dinner are two completely different events and also often the menu is different as well. Why people feel that there is a need to basically schedule staff to do a 16-hour double shift. You know it's not just mothers and not just women but even normal men who have one to two other things going on in their life struggle with that type of shift.”
She also remarks on the beauty of accommodating pregnant workers and the delight of having 4 Darjeeling Express babies which come to the restaurant and are familiar with all the sounds and all of their staff’s voices from in utero. It is this warmth that makes her truly a refreshing female leader in the harsh landscape of hospitality.
Image courtesy of Michael Donald
Interestingly, while her kitchen is all female, she does have male front of house staff. She says the decision isn’t necessarily political or about solely promoting women but that “if there were a guy who was good, could cook intuitively without instructions, without freezing sauces and 85 items on his menu then I would hire him.” She says she doesn’t have a female kitchen because she doesn’t want men; she just wanted people who could cook. Concluding that, “Men cook in this really weird way that I have not understood.”
To us, this does sound like a brilliant opportunity to showcase female cooking talent in a male dominated arena. She highlights that the men are paid fairly at Darjeeling Express - fair being a difficult word to quantify in relation to equity in the workplace. The concept of fairness is challenging as it is often assumes that ‘being fair’ means everybody gets the same thing. Technically ‘fairness’ only works when we’re all starting from the same point. What Asma does extremely well - is she highlights women’s strength, passion and professionalism in a feminist sense, without excluding men that could be potential allies in the road to embracing female equity in the workplace.
Thanks for the inspiration, Asma. You can taste her amazing food on the top floor of Kingly Court on Carnaby Street.