The first time I met Asma was when I sat down for delicious lunch at Sabrina Ghayour’s place, after having completed a shoot with Sabrina. I remember clearly that Sabrina was boasting about how good a chef Asma was, and told me of her pop up restaurant in Soho. A few years later, Asma has not only got her own restaurant in the middle of Covent Garden, a restaurant that is packed full every day, but she is also the first British chef to have appeared on the popular Netflix TV series ‘Chef’s Table’. Not a bad undertaking at all!
I have since worked with Asma a couple of times, but this shoot for ‘Cook’, Corriere della Sera’s food magazine, was the best one. We had two days with Asma, eating at her restaurant, being introduced to her flat where her dinner club dining experiences all started, but best of all - experiencing Asma! Asma is warm, genuine and very funny. Her restaurant is made up of a team of chefs that she is personally connected to, all women whom lived in London but missed a community and a connection with their home countries. Asma gave them a community in the kitchen and they together created a cultural experience through their food.
My biggest regret with the shoot was that I had a massive cold, so I could not get the full experience of the food. So it’s now a case of queuing up in a line with celebrities such as Keira Knightley, David Schwimmer and more to get the full experience again. Unless - (“Asma - are you reading this??? - nudge, nudge…”)
Shot for Cook Magazine
