This new cookbook, Eat Offbeat, will be the first of its kind – written by refugees telling their own story and sharing their recipes. It will feature 80 recipes and stories representing at least 20 chefs hailing from 15 different countries.
Food is a universal language. Now, more than ever, we need to find ways to create connections between different communities and help build better more open societies, where we learn about and appreciate other cultures. Food is an amazingly human way to share memories, places and love.
10 per cent of proceeds from the book will go to the International Rescue Committee, and all remaining profits from this campaign will be invested in hiring and training more refugees.
Eat Offbeat’s creators have three goals in mind: Introduce New Yorkers to new and off-the-beaten-path cuisines, create opportunities for talented home cooks who happened to be refugees by status, and, most importantly, showcase the value refugees bring to the United States.
Since the book’s inception, they’ve trained and hired 16 chefs from 11 different countries and fed 15,000 New Yorkers and introduced them to over 30 of the chefs' unique family dishes.
Through the book you can learn directly from the chefs how to cook their dishes: make Chef Rachana’s Nepali Momos or Chef Dhuha’s Iraqi Biryani. These chefs are sharing the treasured recipes of their very own families with their personal creative touch; and about the culture that bore their cuisine. They'll share their insider tips on how to best use an ingredient, and ancient tricks and wisdom passed on to them from generations of home cooks before them.
New York is a melting pot where so many innovations are born. Creativity is born out of diversity. This book helps celebrate diversity.
