Fatima — head chef since day one
same hands, 30 years
"The biryani recipe is my mother's. I'm not allowed to change it."
— Fatima
Our Kitchen
Fatima has been cooking here since before you were born.
She arrived at Darbar in 1994 carrying a tin of her mother's ground spices from Lucknow. That tin is empty now, but the recipe isn't lost — it lives in every pot of korma that leaves the kitchen.
She still tastes the nihari with a wooden spoon at 7 am, adjusts the salt herself, and will not let anyone else seal the dum. Some things you don't hand off.
30+
Years cooking
6 hrs
Korma simmer time
40
Spices in galouti
