Meet the Syrian chef bringing a taste of home to Cambridge
- Text by Huck
At a young age, Faraj Alnasser was forced to flee his native Syria as conflict swept the country. The subsequent journey was a gruelling one.
After two years in transience, he finally arrived in Cambridge, aged 19, where a local family took him in. He began learning English and was able to sit his GCSEs, during which time he began regularly cooking for his new hosts, introducing them, and their friends, to Syrian cuisine.
Food was always more than just a pastime for Faraj. The dishes he created were a way in which he could remain connected to his home and, by proxy, his family. As word began to spread locally about his dishes, more people began requesting them. Enthused by the response, he took a place at a London cooking school where he trained under famous chef Yotam Ottolenghi, before securing a job at the highly regarded Honey and Co restaurant in Warren Street.
When the pandemic hit, Faraj was placed on furlough for six months, before being laid off permanently. However, he wasn’t to be deterred: rather than sit around lamenting what could have been, he took the leap and established his own cooking business – Faraj’s Kitchen – where he sells “delicious vegetarian and vegan Syrian food” to the local Cambridge community from a temporary space in the city.
Faraj’s Kitchen has been an overwhelming success. Now, with financial support and a design boost from 99designs by Vistaprint, he’s upscaling. It will start with a permanent space from which to prepare his homemade cuisine. There’s no telling where it might end.
By Design is an editorial series created with 99designs by Vistaprint, in which all participating businesses receive a design makeover, as well as a financial grant to help them embark on their next chapter. Read more stories from the series here.
Take a look at the other 99 small business design makeovers on 99 Days Of Design.
The new Faraj’s Kitchen logo was created by olimpio on 99designs by Vistaprint.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Latest on Huck
Maryam El Gardoum is breaking new shores for Morocco’s indigenous surfers
The Amazigh Atlantic — Through her groundbreaking career and popular surf school, the five-time Moroccan champion is helping women find their places in the waves.
Written by: Sam Haddad
Youth violence’s rise is deeply concerning, but mass hysteria doesn’t help
Safe — On Knife Crime Awareness Week, writer, podcaster and youth worker Ciaran Thapar reflects on the presence of violent content online, growing awareness about the need for action, and the two decades since Saul Dibb’s Bullet Boy.
Written by: Ciaran Thapar
Volcom teams up with Bob Mollema for the latest in its Featured Artist Series
True to This — The boardsports lifestyle brand will host an art show in Biarritz to celebrate the Dutch illustrators’ second capsule collection.
Written by: Huck
A visual trip through 100 years of New York’s LGBTQ+ spaces
Queer Happened Here — A new book from historian and writer Marc Zinaman maps scores of Manhattan’s queer venues and informal meeting places, documenting the city’s long LGBTQ+ history in the process.
Written by: Isaac Muk
Nostalgic photos of everyday life in ’70s San Francisco
A Fearless Eye — Having moved to the Bay Area in 1969, Barbara Ramos spent days wandering its streets, photographing its landscape and characters. In the process she captured a city in flux, as its burgeoning countercultural youth movement crossed with longtime residents.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Tony Njoku: ‘I wanted to see Black artists living my dream’
What Made Me — In this series, we ask artists and rebels about the forces and experiences that shaped who they are. Today, it’s avant-garde electronic and classical music hybridist Tony Njoku.
Written by: Tony Njoku
