Turn Trouble Into A Lucrative Opportunity

Are you prepared for a big, unexpected cost?Saima Khan wasntand it forced her to rethinkher entire business.

- Jason Feifer

Saima Khan had an epic string of luck. She was a banker in New York, and one day she ended up chatting with Warren Buffett at an airport. “We had a very personal conversation about love, loss, risk, home, and food,” she says. By the end, she’d offered to cook him a meal at her home. Buffett accepted, brought Bill Gates along, and ate well. Then the industry titans asked her to cook for their upcoming charity event, which she did— making large, shareable plates, harking back to how her Pakistani immigrant family fed guests. The event was a hit. More invitations followed. Soon, Khan saw opportunity. “People who were quite well-traveled were always looking for new dining experiences,” she says. So in 2012, she moved back to her hometown of London and began a private dining business. Celebrities, royalty, and other big spenders could hire her team to serve sumptuous meals in their homes—at a cost of up to $5,000 per person. She named it The Hampstead Kitchen, and it thrived for five years…until a $200,000 tax bill almost ruined everything.