There's no way for me or you to confirm this, really, but my love for food began when I first tried it. My passion for cooking for people came not too long after. Growing up as part of a global Hijazi family in Saudi Arabia meant hosting and attending gigantic gatherings and celebrations where food was the language of love.My mother and aunts all made the same international dishes their own way and took turns hosting our entire extended family over the weekends. I learned to cook in home kitchens that bustled all day with the energy of competing, critical aunties. The day I made a new dish that made it into the auntie's recipe rotation was a proud moment that my ego burned into my 15-year-old brain.

I finally allowed myself to experience the joy of preparing food for people professionally in 2018 when I walked into a bakery I loved in Brooklyn with no food service industry experience and asked for a job because I yearned to create and do something I love in a different way. I opened my first fusion restaurant serving food for blended people in borrowed spaces with my co-parent and friend Michael Spencer in 2020. We lived nearly two years of operating and serving palate and heart-bending food during the most difficult time for the industry.

I now spend my time in the kitchen workshopping ways to make healthy, adaptogenic, dosha-balancing foods delicious and satisfying. I hope to serve food for blended people in borrowed spaces again one day soon.