By Sebastien Malo
NEW YORK, March 11 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Beaming with pride, a Nepalese refugee in the kitchen of a New York caterer holds up cauliflower florets she has steamed, battered and fried, part of a cooking repertoire she says earns her a living and keeps her spirits up.
At home in Kathmandu, explains Rachana, who did not want to give her full name, cooking once brought her pleasure as she fed her family delicacies from recipes inherited from her mother.
Then political violence struck, leaving a close relative dead and forcing her to flee the country. Now her happiness returns, she says, when she prepares traditional specialties for Eat Offbeat, a New York food company where refugees make and deliver ethnic fare.
The start-up company is one of several initiatives across the country appealing to the appetites of Americans and giving refugees opportunities to make a living. Others are located in California, Utah and Texas.
“It’s a very, very good feeling when people come to eat my food, and they talk about how it is so good,” Rachana said, clad in a white apron.
On a recent day in the company’s kitchen, she paced between a counter and stove top where oil heated for the cauliflower, to be served with a tangy tomato and tamari sauce flavored with the herb fenugreek.
Although the cauliflower is a Chinese dish, Rachana, 53, said she developed her own version in Nepal. “From the age of 16 years old I’ve been cooking,” she said.
A half dozen refugees have found work at Eat Offbeat.
Until Rachana became a full-time chef, she scraped by for nearly a decade in New York, speaking no English at first and taking odd jobs.
Now she tells other Eat Offbeat workers: “Don’t worry, you can get whatever you like here. This is America.”
