Like so many stories of food and family, this one starts with a beloved recipe. When Manal Kahi moved to New York from Lebanon, she found herself missing the taste of the hummus she had grown up with in her Syrian grandmother’s kitchen so she set to work making it. As she did, word quickly began to spread among her friends, who eagerly awaited the next batch. As time passed, Manal and her brother Wissam, who was already living in New York, realized their friends’ enthusiasm was not just based on how the hummus tasted—it had just as much to do with the memories of family, home, and heritage that the hummus carried with it.

Out of this realization came Eat Offbeat, a unique catering and meal delivery service that is often staffed by chefs hired through the International Rescue Committee (IRC). From Syria, Iran, Eritrea, Venezuela, and other countries around the world, these chefs have found a new home and new hope in the United States. A wildly successful Kickstarter campaign with the goal of publishing a set of recipes and stories from the Eat Offbeat kitchen soon followed, which raised more than double the initial funding target and garnered national media attention.

And now, in more than seventy authentic, nourishing recipes, THE KITCHEN WITHOUT BORDERS: Recipes and Stories from Refugee and Immigrant Chefs (Workman Publishing) brings the culinary traditions of fourteen of the Eat Offbeat chefs to the forefront.

Join MOFAD and Eat Offbeat founder Manal Kahi and chefs Rachana, Mariama, and Nisran in a conversation that celebrates the launch of their new cookbook and the resilience of these refugee chefs.

Tickets are available at two levels:

• Level one ($15) includes a reserved ticket

• Level two ($95) Reserved Ticket + Cookbook + Eat Offbeat Snack Box

  The Eat Offbeat snack box was custom made for this event and is exclusive to MOFAD guests. The cost includes shipping and is available to US residents only. Please note that orders for the box placed after Friday, March 26 are not guaranteed to arrive ahead of the event. The box includes:

  - Venezuelan Berry Jam by Chef Lebjulet

  - Senegalese Spiced Candied Peanuts by Chef Mariama

  - Iranian Kolompeh Cookies (date cookies) by Chef Nasrin

  - Sri Lankan Coconut Sweets by Chef Shanthini

  - Nepali Ainthe (Nepali-spiced biscuit with icing) by Chef Rachana

  - A signed copy of the Kitchen Without Borders cookbook!

MANAL KAHI

Manal is the co-founder and CEO of Eat Offbeat, a refugee-driven food company that delivers authentic meals conceived and prepared by refugees who now call New York City home. Manal moved to NYC to pursue a career in environmental affairs, but the Hummus she found on supermarket shelves led her on a different journey. She co- founded Eat Offbeat to help New Yorkers discover authentic cuisines from around the world all the while creating quality jobs. Eat Offbeat has since served over 250,000 meals in NYC and has been featured in media outlets including Forbes, The Guardian, the Huffington Post, Newsweek, Fast Company and others.

CHEF NASRIN

Though  she hails from Tehran, another big city, Nasrin Rejali admits to being overwhelmed when she first arrived in New York. After a two-year stay in Turkey, she was granted refugee status and sent to the New York area since her brother—and sponsor—was nearby. Resettlement proved tough for a variety of reasons, but her children and Eat Offbeat helped her come to love her new home.

Cooking comes naturally to Nasrin. Her main teachers were her mother, Ferdous, and her paternal grandmother. When she was growing up, both households were always hubbubs of activity, with parties and friends stopping by and everyone always ready to eat.

CHEF RACHANA

It only takes a few minutes in the Eat Offbeat kitchen to know who is running the show. That would be Rachana Rimal, or as the chefs lovingly call her, “Mami.” One minute, she stops at a table to taste a sauce, making sure the spices are right. The next, she swoops in to pull someone’s ingredients out of the deep fryers at exactly the right moment. Rachana operates as if on a higher plane of consciousness. The easy explanation for this lies with her being the first Eat Offbeat chef—she’s been around the longest and knows every recipe. But there is a much longer answer, and that one begins way back in Nepal.

CHEF MARIAMA

Born and raised in Dakar, Mariama traces her culinary origins back to her mother, who began teaching her the tricks of the cooking trade when Mariama was nine. From measuring water for rice to haggling at the open-air market that was a twenty-minute walk from their house, she acted as a constant source of guidance and affirmation.

At Eat Offbeat, we are food enthusiasts defined not by immigration status, but by a commitment to the shared flavors, stories, and values that make each of us New Yorkers. To Eat Offbeat is to encounter distinct ingredients like tahini and saffron, cilantro and masala, figs and pomegranates, that (like our chefs) work in tandem to form unexpected tastes.