Restaurant owner signs with Pavilion Books

Pavilion Books is to publish the debut by Darjeeling Express restaurant owner Asma Khan.

Commissioning editor Stephanie Milner acquired world rights to the book from Rachel Conway at Georgina Capel Associates.

Darjeeling Express began life as a supper club and opened its doors as a restaurant in Kingly Court, London, in June 2017. Of her supperclub, Tom Parker-Bowles in the Daily Mail said: “This is serious Indian cooking… If the devil is in the detail, then this kitchen is diabolically blessed.” The London Evening Standard’s restaurant critic Grace Dent meanwhile said: "Asma is a force of nature: bold, funny, talented, philanthropic and unstoppable."

The new book Darjeeling Express pays homage to Asma’s royal Mughal ancestry and the busy streets of Calcutta, where she grew up. The recipes celebrate the joy of cooking, serving food at home, and feasting with family and friends.

Khan said: “I was taught to cook by my mother and aunts with affection, humour, stories and most importantly love. In my first meeting with Pavilion they totally got what I wanted – to write a cookbook that would be written in the same way, as a conversation between me and the person using the book. I am absolutely delighted to finally put in writing the recipes that have stayed unwritten in my family for generations.”

Darjeeling Express: Indian home cooking to nourish the soul will publish in October 2018 in hardback.