New York is a city that runs on takeaway food. Delivery services reign supreme - but there's a new startup in town, and it's a little different from the others - as all the food is cooked by refugees. Lorna Shaddick went to visit the kitchens of Eat Offbeat.
IN: Manal Kahi may...
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Script:
UPSOT - So this is chicken hashweh
Manal Kahi may now be running a big, industrial kitchen, but her business all started with a simple quest for fresh hummus.
When this entrepreneur and activist moved to New York from Lebanon a couple of years ago, she was disappointed with supermarket brands, so she started making her own hummus using her Syrian grandmother's recipe - and it took off from there.
SOT - Manal Kahi
So when I mentioned that to my brother Wissam, who is much more business minded than I, he said 'Hey, we should sell it'. We thought there are so many other cuisines, so many other recipes that, just like hummus, are much better when they are homemade and they're made with love by someone who is putting their heart into it. So we decided to open it up to more countries, more cuisines, and have refugees from all over contribute.
This chicken hashweh, a Syrian dish, is just one of the many options available from Eat Offbeat, whose chefs are from countries as diverse as Iraq, Eritrea and Nepal. The founder Manal says the idea is to introduce New Yorkers to new and delicious cuisine that just happens to have been made by refugees.
Eat Offbeat's six chefs, recruited with the help of the International Rescue Committee, have been trained in commercial food preparation by professional Juan Suarez de Lezo. They can whip you up an Iraqi Sumaq salad, an Ethiopian lentil stew, Nepali cauliflower fritters - and much more.
Satakshi Rimal and her mother are refugees from Nepal and both cook for Eat Offbeat. Satakshi says the company's been important in helping them settle in.
SOT - Satakshi Rimal, Eat Offbeat
For my mum, it took her quite some time to adjust to the US. For me and my father it wasn't all that bad because we could speak English and she couldn't. So Eat Offbeat has been like a safe haven for her - similar people, similar backgrounds, mostly similar stories. I think what Eat Offbeat is trying to do is we're trying to give a little bit happy, happiness to the word refugee.
The business is catching on at a time of increased suspicion of refugees… fuelled by rhetoric in the American presidential election campaign. Founder Manal says the company has an important role to play.
SOT - Manal Kahi, Founder, Eat Offbeat
It only shows us that there is more need for us to be there, and to show that refugees coming are not necessarily burdens, they don't have to be a burden on anyone. On the contrary, they are bringing with them so much value, so much heritage that they can share with us here. Our ultimate objective is really to change the narrative around refugees.
It may still be in soft launch stage, only catering to large groups, but Eat Offbeat's already flooded with orders. As we visit, bags of delicious smelling cartons are heading out the door to feed a group of law students at Columbia University… just the latest hungry New Yorkers to enjoy home cooking from foreign lands. Lorna Shaddick, New York.