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Kickstarter Alert! Authentic Middle Eastern Cookbook Written by Refugees

Kickstarter Alert

Columbia Startup Lab Resident Venture
Eat Offbeat is Launching Their First Cookbook
Authentic, Never-Before-Published, Middle Eastern Recipes
Written by Refugees Now Working as Chefs in New York City

See The Kickstarter Video

Eat Offbeat is launching a Kickstarter campaign to produce the first-ever cookbook written by refugees now working as professional chefs in New York City! This cookbook will be filled with never-before-published recipes and stories straight from the kitchens and homes of Eat Offbeat’s chefs, with images by award-winning food photographer Signe Birck.

We’re launching the campaign tomorrow, Tuesday, March 7! As you may know, it’s critical that we get close to our goal in the first few days so as to build momentum and ensure a successful campaign. We are emailing our close friends and family to ask them to support us on these early days, and I am of course including you in this circle given your “early believer status”!

The Eat Offbeat Story
Inspiration can come from the strangest places. For Manal Kahi ‘15SIPA, it was bad hummus. Hailing from Lebanon, she had high standards when it came to the beloved dip, and was disappointed with what she found in New York City. So she started making her grandmother’s recipe at home and got rave reviews from her friends. Kahi and her brother Wissam realized that they had found a market undeveloped: providing truly authentic foreign cuisine to the hungry masses of New York City.

And so Eat Offbeat was born. Wanting to create a service that not only delivers unique food but does good, Manal and Wissam worked with the International Rescue Committee to hire three refugee chefs from Nepal, Iraq, and Eritrea. Having experience with refugee issues in their home country of Lebanon, Manal wanted to find a way to help refugees in the U.S. The duo also noticed that refugees in America are underrepresented in the restaurant scene in New York, which made it all the easier to hire refugee chefs and fill a market currently underserved on both sides (hiring refugees and serving unique cuisine).

A fellowship provided by the Tamer Fund for Social Enterprise, a recently established center in the Columbia Business School was instrumental in providing not only the necessary funds, but more importantly, the support. Sandra Navalli and Bruce Usher of Columbia’s Tamer Center were especially helpful in encouraging Manal to pursue this venture by giving her the confidence to strike out and the guidance to refine her business strategy and improve her pitch.

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