This story was originally published by Reasons to be Cheerful
“Many of our clients had successful businesses in their homelands; they are doctors, lawyers and engineers or really popular stay-at-home moms that managed the social calendar for the family, and then they come here and are almost treated like children,” Hussein-Cattan says. “The only jobs available to them are usually low paid, like cleaning the house or babysitting or working construction.”
Case in point: Her father trained as a veterinarian in Somalia, but after resettling in San Diego, he got a job as a kennel attendant with the county that he held from 1985 to 2018. “Practically an entry-level job,” Hussein-Cattan comments, “because his veterinarian training was not recognized in the US.” By contrast, Tiyya Foundation’s economic advancement program placed 41 employees in 15 industries and secured close to $3 million in wages for its program participants in 2022 and 2023.
Crushed by negative news?
Sign up for the Reasons to be Cheerful newsletter.
The culinary program is at the heart of the mission: Flavors From Afar chefs include women like Farah Talaei, originally from Iran, who developed her love for cooking by observing her mother and aunties in the kitchen. She now runs a flourishing catering service in Orange County, serving unique dishes that highlight Persian and Mediterranean cuisines. Or Louie Chavez, an Indigenous chef who is deeply rooted in his Navajo and Apache heritage and strives to preserve the cuisine he learned from his 103-year-old grandmother. “With food, this is the first time they get to be the experts, and they are celebrated on a public platform,” Hussein-Cattan says. “Our chefs are being interviewed by the news media, and there is a pride, which is beautiful to witness.”
She originally started Flavors From Afar as a social enterprise in the Los Angeles neighborhood Little Ethiopia in 2020, but her timing for the restaurant opening could hardly have been worse: right at the beginning of the pandemic amidst stay-at-home orders. She nevertheless managed to highlight rotating chefs once a month and establish a catering service. “Adaptability and creativity are part of a refugee’s life,” she says. Despite its initial difficulties, Flavors From Afar was awarded the Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2022 and 2023, and Los Angeles magazine voted it among LA’s top 100 restaurants.
“A guest who had grown up in Guatemala broke down crying because the Guatemalan chow mein dish took him straight back to his childhood,” she says. “That actually happens quite frequently. Our food is the food the moms cooked at home; you don’t find that anywhere else.” Guatemalan chow mein? “You might think of chow mein as typical Chinese food, but in fact, there was a large Chinese migration to Guatemala,” Hussein-Cattan explains. “Or Somalians also cook a lot of Mediterranean food because of the country’s history with Italian colonists.” Clients might initially think of such dishes as fusion, but to Hussein-Cattan, they are simply authentic dishes immigrants made at home.
While she and her mom originally started helping families from East Africa, over the years the foundation has supported refugees and asylum seekers from 23 countries, for instance, from Syria, Iraq, Palestine and most recently from Ukraine. Each chef brings their own unique history to the table. “In East Africa, almost every family makes their samosas a little different, and my own mother only trusted me enough to share the most secret ingredient for her famous sauce with me recently, once I graduated from the Institute of Culinary Education in Pasadena to learn the restaurant trade,” Hussein-Cattan says with a laugh.
