Page 7 - ATODAY NEW

U.S. NEWS A7
Monday 4 April 2016

Refugee chefs bring their recipes to NYC food company

DEEPTI HAJELA countries that have cui- granted asylum after com- They offer food delivery to to the point where individ-
Associated Press sines we don’t really know. ing to the U.S. in 2006, at groups of at least five peo- ual meal delivery becomes
NEW YORK (AP) — The ... It’s not cuisines that you the time leaving behind ple, with hopes of growing economically feasible.
kitchen hums with activity. find at every corner.” her husband and two of
Rachana Rimal is at one A Lebanese immigrant her three children. She
table, making momos, the who came to New York for was reunited with most of
traditional dumplings from graduate school, Manal her family in recent years,
her native Nepal. Next to Kahi started thinking about but her son is still in Nepal,
her, Iraqi immigrant Dhuha a foodbusiness in 2014 after making her reluctant to talk
Jasif mixes some pureed getting rave reviews from about what drove her to
eggplant for baba gha- friends for the hummus seek asylum. When she left,
nouj. Containers of adas, a she made from her grand- an armed conflict between
lentil stew from the East Af- mother’s recipe. the Nepal government and
rican nation of Eritrea, sit on At the time refugees were the Communist Party of Ne-
a counter. also on her mind, since pal had been going on for
The unusual mix of cuisines many Syrians had started 10 years, leaving at least
is how it works at Eat Off- fleeing their war-torn home 13,000 dead.
beat, a Queens-based for next-door Lebanon. She’s been a cooking afi-
food delivery service. All “I was feeling very hopeless cionado her entire life, hav-

Rachana Rimel, left, and Dhuha Jasim package Adas, a lentil dish from Eritrea, in New York. A
food delivery service is offering New Yorkers the chance to try some food cooked by some un-
usual chefs. All seven employees at Eat Offbeat are either refugees or asylum-seekers who fled
their home countries. They’re cooking foods from those places, including Iraq and Nepal.

(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

seven employees are refu- about it,” Kahi said. “When ing learned from her moth-
gees or asylum seekers who I got this idea of making er and grandmother. When
fled their home countries. hummus, I thought maybe the opportunity came from
None had any professional Syrian refugees could be Eat Offbeat, she jumped
cooking experience be- making” it. at it. Since then, momos
fore coming to work for the As the idea for the scope have become a standard
startup, which launched in of the company grew, the offering on the company’s
November. thought of employing refu- menu, and she’s taught the
The company has commit- gees stuck. other women how to make
ted to hiring refugees and “We thought they were them. Another favorite is
teaching them culinary more in need than any oth- her cauliflower Manchuri-
skills, partly for altruistic rea- er immigrants,” she said. an, which comes in a spicy
sons and partly as a busi- She and her brother part- sauce. Rimal has had to
ness strategy. In a city filled nered with Juan Suarez change her recipes some-
with good ethnic food, it de Lezo, a chef who has what to accommodate
is a way for the cuisine to worked in high-profile res- an American palate, and
stand out. taurants around the world, she’s often tired from the
“We are really focusing and contacted the Inter- work, but “I’m so happy to
on these new and off-the- national Rescue Commit- be here,” she said.
beaten-path cuisines,” said tee, a humanitarian orga- Kahi said the company is
Manal Kahi, who founded nization that helps resettle making close to 200 meals
the company with her refugees and asylees. per week now out of the
brother, Wissam Kahi. “Ref- Rimal was one of their first professional kitchen they
ugees are coming from hires. The 52-year-old was rent in Queens.