Samin Nosrat, the chef and author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, says of Hassan, “Talking to her I felt the emotional weight and care she held carefully in her hands. “We paid her more than we paid everybody else, and we also compensated the bibis,” Hassan says. Farah visited almost all of the women at their homes. Hassan and her co-author, Julia Turshen, often transcribed the recipes by sight during video calls and tested them afterward. For example, suugo suqaar, from Somalia, part of which was once an Italian colony, resembles a pasta with ragù in all but one respect: a particular depth derived from the spice blend xawaash. The book’s 75 dishes offer lessons in each nation’s economic and political histories. Hassan found each bibi-the Swahili word for grandmother-by drawing on the global community she has built over the years.įULL PLATE “One Thing That Has Always Brought Me Peace Is My Ability To Listen To My Gut,” Says Hassan. This October, her plan comes to fruition with In Bibi’s Kitchen: The Recipes and Stories of Grandmothers From the Eight African Countries That Touch the Indian Ocean, which profiles nearly 20 women from Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Madagascar and Comoros. “Even when male chefs with TV shows do visit these countries, they often have other men speaking to traditions that were developed by women.” “I wasn’t seeing people who looked like me being spoken to,” Hassan says. In creating Basbaas, Hassan drew up a business plan, which included a future goal: to write a cookbook of recipes from African women elders. She came up with the idea for a line of sauces and chutneys, which launched as Basbaas Somali Foods in 2015. Gradually, she realized she could use food to spark conversations and challenge rote refugee narratives. “I had been doubling down on everything except being Somali,” Hassan recalls. Her New Book, Which She Wrote With Julia Turshen.

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