Refugee Chefs Fuel Catering Startup Eat Offbeat
CEO and co-founder of Eat Offbeat Manal Kahi at Columbia University in New York City. Photo: Nina Roberts
Published in Forbes on October 13, 2017
“Eat Offbeat serves authentic meals that are conceived, prepared and delivered by refugees who are resettled here in New York City,” said Manal Kahi from a Columbia University auditorium stage October 6 in Manhattan. Kahi is the CEO and co-founder with her brother Wissam Kahi, of the social enterprise Eat Offbeat.
Kahi gave a concise presentation at Columbia University’s 16th annual Social Enterprise Conference, hosted by the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia Business School. Kahi, originally from Lebanon, graduated from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) in 2015 and launched Eat Offbeat soon after.
The cavernous auditorium held just under 300 conference attendees, a mix of social work and business school students, as well as professionals working in both non-profit and for-profit sectors.
“Our chefs happen to be refugees by status, but they are first and foremost chefs by nature,” continued Kahi, clicker in hand. One of the enormous presentation slides behind her had the catch phrase, “Come for the mission, stay for the food.” She rattled off countries where Eat Offbeat’s chefs originate—Nepal, Syria, Eritrea, Senegal, Algeria—among others, 15 countries in total; 12 languages spoken in the kitchen. Eat Offbeat’s dishes are authentic, prepared as they would be in the chef’s home.
Kahi’s presentation was well timed, as all conference participants had just piled plates high with Eat Offbeat’s delicious offerings at the catered lunch. They had crowded around a conference room table and lined a long hallway to sample the dishes prepared and laid out by a handful of Eat Offbeat’s chefs.
Chef Nasrin from Iran is the mastermind behind the outstanding sour cherry pistachio rice and Chicken Fesenjan, stewed chicken dish with saffron, walnuts and pomegranate molasses. Nepali cauliflower fritters were the creation of Chef Rachana from Nepal, as were the momos—Nepali dumplings—with bright green spinach interiors, which were a conference favorite. There were other global treats, including Chef Dhuha from Iraq's sumac flavored tomato and cucumber salad.
Eat Offbeat is a “social enterprise,” a term that’s commonly used to describe a for-profit company with positive social or environmental impact. Newman’s Own, present at the conference, Warby Parker and Toms are known, mainstream examples of social enterprises.
In addition to Kahi’s presentation, this year’s conference called “Leaders Taking a Stand: Social Impact in Turbulent Times,” had numerous talks, discussions and workshops. HBO’s Joy Benfante and the International Rescue Committee (IRC)’s Sandee Borgman discussed their collaborative refugee awareness campaign with the Game of Thrones cast; Cheryl Wilkins of Columbia’s Center for Justice talked about re-entry into the workforce after incarceration. A workshop led by Kristina Drury of Tythe Design focused on four of today’s pressing issues: climate change, workforce re-entry after incarceration, public education and the refugee crises.
After Kahi’s presentation, she sat down to discuss why she launched Eat Offbeat.
Nina Roberts: Why did you choose the for-profit model for Eat Offbeat, rather than non-profit?
Manal Kahi: We decided to go the for-profit way for several reasons. One, we could be profitable on our own. There is no need to take grants from other initiatives that actually need grants to work.
The other is part of our mission. We want people to see our chefs as regular contributors to the economy. They are not here asking for charity, all they need is an opportunity to work. It’s about flipping the table on that, showcasing a story that is the exact opposite. They are here, bringing value, being a regular employee; paying their taxes.
Roberts: What brought you to the U.S.?
Kahi: I came specifically for school. Prior to coming here I was in Beirut working as an environmental consultant, so, nothing to do with food. The reason I came here, I wanted to go a little further in international environmental policy, climate change, work at the UN or something like that, that’s why I came to SIPA. But, I ended up doing something completely different!
Roberts: Why create a company with refugees?
Kahi: This refugee crises—or what’s know as the refugee crises today—was just starting when I left Lebanon. Coming from Lebanon, the issue of refugees has been there since I was born. There’s always been refugees, we’ve had to leave because of war; it’s something we’ve always had in our minds.
When I left in 2013, I was feeling guilty about it. I knew there was a lot of discrimination happening in the country against Syrian refugees coming to Lebanon. They were already in a very dire situation and coming to Lebanon wasn’t always easy, let’s say. So, when I came here and we had this business idea, it kind of made sense.
Roberts: How did you find your chefs?
Kahi: We partnered early on with the IRC. To this day, they still help us.
Roberts: How many refugee chefs do you employ?
Kahi: We have 28 chefs and a kitchen manager. Administrative is just me, Courtney our events manager, my brother, and sometimes we have interns.
Roberts: Who are your clients?
Kahi: We have corporate clients, companies like Casper, Kickstarter, Google, Estée Lauder; office lunches, team meetings, events. We cater for small investment firms too, and tech startup organizations like New York Tech, Grand Central Tech. Then we have non-profits, from the Ford Foundation to the Red Cross. Columbia and NYU are our biggest university clients. Also, individuals, anyone hosting a party.
Roberts: Where did you get your initial funding?
Kahi: We’ve been bootstrapping. We had to inject some internal investment, my co-founder and I, and we got a Tamer Center grant. We’ve been generating a lot of revenue, so that’s good.
Clearly, to grow a little further, we are going to need a little push. So we are looking to fund raise. We are thinking angel investors, probably not venture capital money.
Roberts: Have customers been receptive to the idea of refugee chefs?
Kahi: The level of support we received surprised us and it’s getting even stronger. After the first “travel ban” in January, we actually got a surge, we doubled in size right after.
When the travel ban first happened, it was kind of scary. I was looking around, “What are we going to do now?” But when we saw all those people going to JFK Airport, lawyers volunteering, advocating, people were calling us; we felt safe. In fact, we were so overwhelmed and happy with what was going on, we threw a thank you party. Our chefs wanted to thank New Yorkers for all their support.
This Q&A has been edited and condensed for clarity.