When Manal arrived to New York in 2013, she was impressed with the quality and diversity of peanut butter, but disappointed with the Hummus…

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.