Asma Khan’s not only prominent in the UK for her amazing food, for being the first British-based chef on the Netflix series Chef’s table, but she has also been forefront in fighting for women working professionally in the kitchen. (For those of you whom have followed my blogs, you will see that I have bigged Asma up on previous blog posts, talking about previous shoots.)
This cover shoot for OFM took place at the same day that Asma got a message confirming her residency at a central Covent Garden location. Her restaurant, in the middle of a pandemic, was about to expand from a tucked away, small top floor covent garden space, to a huge restaurant in the middle of bustling Covent Garden. A great achievement for someone who only a few years was only known to a few handfuls of people for her dinner clubs and pop up restaurants. She came to the shoot happy and confident - and left the shoot ecstatic. Just the way it should be - but in this case it was probably more due to the call confirming the restaurant than anything I had done. After all - Asma had to spend a lot of the time during the shoot holding back the tears and coughs after playing with chilli powder.
I was fortunate to get invited to the opening of the new restaurant Darjeeling Express. Last time I ate at Asma’s I kicked myself as I had the flue - and couldn’t taste a thing. This time I brought my tastebuds polished and sharpened, all my other senses at the ready, and left my camera behind - 100% attention to the food. Great taster menu from beginning to end. So - to celebrate the opening of restaurants in the UK this month, why not celebrate the opening of a brand new restaurant - Darjeeling Express, Covent Garden.
Shot for OFM
