Welcome to Hard Talk from the BBC World Service with me Stephen Saka.

My guest today comes from a privileged background, has a doctorate in law,

and yet defied expectations by becoming a chef, or as she puts it, a simple cook.

Asma Khan undoubtedly has a rebellious streak.

Raised in Calcutta, in a family able to trace its roots to generations of

Muslim warrior princes, she left India as a young woman following her academic husband to England.

There she felt alone and unhappy, until she discovered the joys of cooking the food that she

was brought up with, and she did it with a community of

women from South Asia who became her workmates and soulmates. Today, Asma Khan's restaurant,

Darjeeling Express, is a hugely popular London fixture. It is the world's first all-female

high-end Indian restaurant, and it serves as a symbol of her strongly held values.

Many of the women who work there are so-called second daughters as she was herself.

She has long campaigned to end the stigma attached to second daughters in India and beyond.

She's also used her growing reputation to make a stand against misogyny and racism in the

restaurant business. And she supports the work of the World Food Programme and international humanitarian

projects. Food, she says, is the best way to connect people. But how far can she take that simple,

powerful idea? Well, Asma Khan joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk.

Thank you very much. Well, it is a great pleasure to be in your restaurant. I just wonder if the young

asthma, say teenage asthma, could see you now with your own restaurant, a bit of a food guru in

the United Kingdom, a social activist as well. Would she believe it? Could be possible? No, because the way that girls were brought up in a family like mine and the way I felt my position in the family and the clan was, I didn't dare to imagine. I dreamt of it. I used to dream of my name and lights.

I used to dream that mountains were calling out my name.

I would never, ever say it.

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