S4: Darjeeling Express’ founder Asma Khan, shares her remarkable journey and why she’s so passionate about empowering women

Conversations of Inspiration

Holly Tucker MBE

Education, Society & Culture, Entrepreneurship, Self-improvement, Business, Personal Journals

5.0 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2019

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, Holly meets Asma Khan, founder of the restaurant Darjeeling Express.

An episode filled with spectacular advice and insight, Asma shares her early life experiences in India and how they shaped her journey to this point. Born a second daughter in India, Asma felt the intense impact of feeling unwanted which she now sees underpins her belief in using her business as a force for good and helping other women feel valued.

Asma has had an extraordinary journey, starting in India with an arranged marriage which subsequently saw her relocate to England, where she studied law and gained a phd. Despite academic success, Asma felt empty, lost and lacking her purpose in life, and so, she began cooking.

Here began the next chapter of her journey - from hosting supper clubs in her house and building a small female community around her, she garnered a huge following of loyal fans and was soon offered her own pop up in Soho. She employed the women in her close circle, to work there, where they soon quit their nannying, cleaning jobs to be chefs in her kitchen!

Today, Asma's restaurant's mission remains that of empowering women and taking a chance on women who are not trained chefs and giving them an opportunity in life to shine.

Enjoying listening to these unfiltered chats? It's worth following Holly Tucker MBE and Holly & Co on Instagram, and subscribing to our weekly newsletter on our website, where Holly downloads her thoughts, and exclusively shares small business finds and topical, 'ungoogleable' business advice.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week on Conversations of Inspiration I'm speaking to Asma Khan, founder of the restaurant
0:05.6	Dargilling Express. I first met Asma speaking at a NatWest event and was completely
0:11.0	blown away by her story and was
0:13.4	delighted to then watch it on Netflix on the award-winning
0:16.7	Chef's Table as the first UK chef to feature on this program.
0:21.8	Asma was born a second daughter in India which was significant as the negative impact
0:27.2	to the family is like a death rather than a birth.
0:31.6	The impact of feeling unwanted had such an intense impact on asthma. She
0:36.9	used her life not only to become a successful entrepreneur but is using her business
0:41.9	to help other women feel valued. We spoke about the impact
0:46.2	her parents had on her life from an early age, how following her purpose and passion
0:51.4	in life set her free and gave her the fuel to help bring
0:55.3	happiness and empowerment to others. So many golden nuggets of spectacular advice
1:01.6	on this episode that I know will stay with me always. I do hope you enjoy.
1:06.7	Bower you head and let your eyelids close on down where we're going you won't need to bring your frown. I'm Holly Tucker and welcome to conversations of inspiration.
1:18.0	Back in 2006 I founded Not on the High Street from my kitchen table and since then I've gone on to
1:25.0	launch Holly and Co. I'm the UK Ambassador of Creative Small Businesses and I believe that
1:30.8	having a business doing what you love is the key to a happy fulfilled life.
1:35.8	My dream is to help everybody start theirs.
1:39.1	I'm here to offer advice, inspiration, wisdom and encouragement. And in my view, the best way to do this is by sharing
1:47.9	stories. So I've reached out to my favorite small businesses, entrepreneurs and those who simply inspire me and ask
1:56.0	them to share theirs.
	...

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