Country: United States
Organisation Name: My Halal Kitchen
Started in the Year: 2008
Position: Founder, Publisher
Website: www.myHalalkitchen.com
Personal Introduction:
Yvonne Maffei, MA is a self-taught chef, food and travel writer, an independent researcher, author, entrepreneur and a Halal economy subject matter expert. She is the founder of the first website on Halal food & cooking, MyHalalKitchen.com, with a mission to make global cuisine Halal and to spread the concept of culinary diplomacy as a means to bring people to the table to share common values. Yvonne’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, CNN’s Eatocracy, Forbes, The Kitchn, Apartment Therapy, Epicurious, CBS Religion & News, NPR, Chicago Public Radio, The Chicago History Museum, the Aga Khan Museum (Canada) and other prominent media globally.
She has been an invited guest at the Obama White House and a repeat host of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services community health programs on her social media platform. Her research has been published in academic journals such as the Food Studies Journal and presented at Cornell University’s Language of Food Conference, the World Halal Summit (Istanbul, Turkey) and the Halal Business Expos in both the US and Canada. She has served as an advisor to the government of Uzbekistan on Gastro Tourism and most recently spoke about the opportunities in the American Halal consumer market at the Islamic Development Bank Private Sector Forum in Egypt. As a corporate consultant, Yvonne has advised Aramark Corporation for the first ever all-Halal university dining facility at NYU Manhattan. Yvonne has transformed both the culinary and Halal food industries by being the first ambassador for the promotion of Halal foodand cooking in the U.S. and abroad.
Yvonne’s culinary interests and ethnic background are rooted in her Midwestern upbringing and Sicilian and Puerto Rican ethnic heritage, all of which have led to her research interests in local, seasonal and traditional foods. She has lived and travelled abroad in order to dive deeper and learn the traditional and modern culinary applications in such places as France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Morocco, Greece, Turkey, Bosnia and Croatia. Yvonne’s cookbooks include My Halal Kitchen (2016) and Summer Ramadan Cooking (2013) and her work can be found on www.MyHalalKitchen.com and www.YvonneMaffei.com where she shares not only her recipes, but Halal industry information, global travel stories, and her own perspectives on the importance of where our food comes from and how to protect it. She resides in San Diego, California.
Professional Introduction:
MyHalalKitchen.com was started in 2008 from my home kitchen in a Chicago suburb and began out of a void of available information about Halal cooking and cuisine across the culinary world as well as the greater food and beverage industries.
The mission of My Halal Kitchen has always been to make global cuisine Halal by demonstrating that any kind of global cuisine can be consumed when one learns to make small tweaks to some very basic ingredients, such as Halal substitutes for alcohol and pork when cooking and baking. Additionally, the concept of culinary diplomacy as a means to bring people to the table to share common values has been important to me in light of Islamophobia across North America where I was living at the time.
| To make global cuisine Halal by demonstrating that any kind of global cuisine can be consumed when one learns to make small tweaks to some very basic ingredients. |
My culinary interests are rooted in my Midwest American upbringing and Sicilian and Puerto Rican ethnic heritage, all of which taught me to seek out local and seasonal foods from nearby farmers and orchard owners, as well as the traditional foods of each of my parents. During my university years I lived and travelled abroad in order to dive deeper and learn the traditional and modern culinary applications in places like Sicily and all over Italy, Spain, Mexico, Morocco, Greece, and Puerto Rico. It gave me a depth of understanding about home cooking, ingredient origins and a deep respect for the people helping bring those ingredients and dishes to the family table.
Fast forward to 2008 when I first began the My Halal Kitchen site as a blog. At the onset, it was a hit with the online audience as well as the in-person audiences around Chicago where I conducted cooking classes and demonstrations while partnering with Halal food brands like Crescent Foods and Chicago-based Halal certifier, IFANCA. I then began partnering with the American grocery retailer Whole Foods and the food brand Saffron Road Foods to market the availability of some of the first Halal frozen food products available en masse.
Shortly thereafter I decided to self-publish my first cookbook in 2016 in order to introduce the concept of Ramadan foods to the public. During this time, one of my most popular recipes: Dates with Cream for Iftar became a huge sensation and was later featured in The New York Times along with my other Ramadan recipes.
Subsequently, my work (recipes, success story, collaborative efforts, interviews about Halal and/or Ramadan), began to be featured in more national and international media such as The Chicago Tribune, CNN’s Eatocracy, Forbes, The Kitchn, Apartment Therapy, Epicurious, CBS Religion & News, NPR, Chicago Public Radio, The Chicago History Museum, the Aga Khan Museum (Canada), Al Arabiya, and more.
Additionally, I was an invited guest at many conferences and trade shows such as Halal Fest Toronto, Halal Food Tour by Sameer’s Eats (all over the United States), Chicago Gourmet, and was invited to give academic speeches and lectures at such places as the University of Seattle on the Deeper Meaning of Halal, the World Halal Summit Istanbul, and to work with the government of Uzbekistan on Halal Gastronomy concepts for tourism.
Some of my most memorable events have been as an invited guest to the Obama White House and a repeat host of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services community health programs on my social media platform, which I am happy to use as platforms for positive change in the direction of truly healthy living and a deeper understanding of the connection between food and culinary diplomacy among nations and individuals.
With my research published in academic journals such as the Food Studies Journal and presented at Cornell University’s Language of Food Conference, the World Halal Summit (Istanbul, Turkey) and the Halal Business Expos in both the US and Canada, I hope to leave an indelible mark on the pioneering history of Halal in North America.
My most recent events have been to participate as a guest speaker on opportunities in the American Halal consumer market at the Islamic Development Bank Private Sector Forum in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Subsequent travels included research trips to Turkey, Bosnia and Croatia to consider culinary tourism opportunities and culinary research for upcoming books.
My cookbooks include My Halal Kitchen (2016) and Summer Ramadan Cooking (2013) and my work can be found on www.MyHalalKitchen.com and www.YvonneMaffei.com where I share not only my recipes, but Halal industry information, global travel stories, and my own perspectives on the importance of where our food comes from and how to protect it. I currently reside in La Jolla, California close to the University of California San Diego.
Interview Questions:
What inspired you to start your initiative in the Halal industry?
I saw a gap in the market for Halal recipes and cooking.
What were the challenges you had to overcome in the initial stages of starting your initiative?
Getting to know the people in the Halal industry, as many people do not consider you educated if you don’t hold a PhD or academic recognition in food science. It took a long time for them to see the value that I bring to the table and up to this day I’m still not sure they do.
What is the most important thing you feel anyone needs to do to build a successful business in the Islamic Economy?
You need a tough back bone because people can be very difficult. We have people from many cultures in our ummah so there are always misunderstandings. Many people don’t follow basic business principles and do not see the value in collaborations. It’s hard to do business in this community sometimes, so one has to find the right people, the right mentors and keep a focus on one’s vision.
