In Person of Interest we talk to the people catching our eye right now about what they’re doing, eating, reading, and loving. Next up is Meymuna Hussein-Cattan, who runs the Tiyya Foundation and sister restaurant Flavors From Afar.
Tender lamb shanks melt into an Egyptian gravy, soaking the accompanying fluffy rice pilaf. This is one of the most popular entrées at Flavors From Afar, a sunlit restaurant in the Fairfax district of Hollywood opened by Meymuna Hussein-Cattan and cofounder Christian Davis in March of 2020.
Alongside a staple menu of customer favorites, each month Hussein-Cattan taps a new chef who is a refugee or asylum seeker to share their culture via home-cooked meals—like Chechen manti dumplings, Lebanese ouze, and Kenyan coconut tilapia. This ensures a diversity of cuisine hard to find in many other restaurants. Most chefs are discovered through the Tiyya Foundation, a nonprofit Hussein-Cattan started with her mother, Owliya Dima, in 2010 to support families of refugees, immigrants, and displaced Indigenous communities. The relationship is self-sustaining: 40 percent of profits generated by Flavors From Afar goes towards Tiyya’s programming.
“What I want to do is create a peer-to-peer dialogue,” explains Hussein-Cattan. As an East African refugee who moved to the U.S. in 1984, she knows firsthand how food can be an entry point for cultural exchange and a way to highlight talent over trauma. “I think our stories should be held in care,” she says. “At the start our audience was intrigued by my mother’s experience as a refugee—her reasons for fleeing Ethiopia, life in the refugee camp, her transition into America. I wish she was empowered to lead instead with her favorite foods, music, and passion for gardening. [Because], ultimately, she became triggered by her past.”
A year and a half after their launch, Flavors From Afar is still cooking. I sat down with Hussein-Cattan to chat about how her experiences as a refugee have shaped her career, why centering joy is important, and her favorite lazy meal on a night off.
My parents fled… Ethiopia in the ’70s and I was born in a refugee camp in Somalia. I started the Tiyya Foundation in the U.S. with my mother to support refugee families because we knew how difficult it is to transition into a new country. Most of my upbringing was just watching my parents figure out how to navigate their lives here. However, we hit a wall in 2012 because being active in the non-profit triggered my mother’s PTSD due to the repeated retelling of her refugee experience. Many elders from Ethiopia seldom speak about the violence they witnessed. For my mom specifically, retelling her story brought up vivid memories that were unprocessed. After my mom left the foundation, I had faith [in our cause] and the right people showed up to help.
In my experience, refugees are… like alchemists. They’re able to create something out of nothing after losing everything. We’re celebrating them for their gifts and talent as culinary artists—and amplifying immigrant women as the originators of these dishes—and that feels good to me. We introduce dishes that they make at home for their children. These aren’t recipes that you find everywhere; they’re not typically accessible in the American mainstream.
In Person of Interest we talk to the people catching our eye right now about what they’re doing, eating, reading, and loving. Next up is Meymuna Hussein-Cattan, who runs the Tiyya Foundation and sister restaurant Flavors From Afar.Tender lamb shanks melt into an Egyptian gravy, soaking the accompanying fluffy rice pilaf. This is one of the most popular entrées at Flavors From Afar, a sunlit restaurant in the Fairfax district of Hollywood opened by Meymuna Hussein-Cattan and cofounder Christian Davis in March of 2020.Alongside a staple menu of customer favorites, each month Hussein-Cattan taps a new chef who is a refugee or asylum seeker to share their culture via home-cooked meals—like Chechen manti dumplings, Lebanese ouze, and Kenyan coconut tilapia. This ensures a diversity of cuisine hard to find in many other restaurants. Most chefs are discovered through the Tiyya Foundation, a nonprofit Hussein-Cattan started with her mother, Owliya Dima, in 2010 to support families of refugees, immigrants, and displaced Indigenous communities. The relationship is self-sustaining: 40 percent of profits generated by Flavors From Afar goes towards Tiyya’s programming.“What I want to do is create a peer-to-peer dialogue,” explains Hussein-Cattan. As an East African refugee who moved to the U.S. in 1984, she knows firsthand how food can be an entry point for cultural exchange and a way to highlight talent over trauma. “I think our stories should be held in care,” she says. “At the start our audience was intrigued by my mother’s experience as a refugee—her reasons for fleeing Ethiopia, life in the refugee camp, her transition into America. I wish she was empowered to lead instead with her favorite foods, music, and passion for gardening. [Because], ultimately, she became triggered by her past.”A year and a half after their launch, Flavors From Afar is still cooking. I sat down with Hussein-Cattan to chat about how her experiences as a refugee have shaped her career, why centering joy is important, and her favorite lazy meal on a night off.My parents fled… Ethiopia in the ’70s and I was born in a refugee camp in Somalia. I started the Tiyya Foundation in the U.S. with my mother to support refugee families because we knew how difficult it is to transition into a new country. Most of my upbringing was just watching my parents figure out how to navigate their lives here. However, we hit a wall in 2012 because being active in the non-profit triggered my mother’s PTSD due to the repeated retelling of her refugee experience. Many elders from Ethiopia seldom speak about the violence they witnessed. For my mom specifically, retelling her story brought up vivid memories that were unprocessed. After my mom left the foundation, I had faith [in our cause] and the right people showed up to help.In my experience, refugees are… like alchemists. They’re able to create something out of nothing after losing everything. We’re celebrating them for their gifts and talent as culinary artists—and amplifying immigrant women as the originators of these dishes—and that feels good to me. We introduce dishes that they make at home for their children. These aren’t recipes that you find everywhere; they’re not typically accessible in the American mainstream.