She started making her own based on a family recipe, which her friends started raving
about. Her brother, Wissam, saw the opportunity there and said: “we should sell it!”. And
so they went on a mission to find a hummus as good as their grandmother’s – that’s how
they came to think of refugees being resettled in NY as an excellent community to find
someone just like her. The idea evolved since: although Manal and Wissam both love hummus and could eat it
all day everyday, they knew there were endless other recipes around the world they’d
like to discover and share. That’s where Chef Juan jumped on board, changing from his
usual Michelin-star level kitchens to a more modest but much more exciting one, and
helped them bring the idea to a boil.