Chef Fariyal Abdullahi shares her childhood memories growing up in Ethiopia and the food rituals she holds close when she is missing home. She talks about picking a sheep every Friday for their family and why these experiences deepened her connection to food and perspective. Fariyal talks about moving from Ethiopia to the states at 16 years old, her first experiences with American food, and why she decided to pivot her career to becoming a chef. She talks about graduating from the CIA and landing in the kitchen of the greatest restaurant in the world in Copenhagen and some hallmarks of Scandinavian cuisine. Fariyal shares why she decided to take a year off to rest and prioritize her mental health and leave kitchens to start consulting in the industry. She talks about her experience walking the red carpet at the Met Gala last year and what kind of kitchen culture is important to cultivate. Fariyal reveals the Food Network shows and chefs that are her favorite and why she doesn’t think her cooking style works for competition.
Chef Fariyal Abdullahi shares her childhood memories growing up in Ethiopia and the food rituals she holds close when she is missing home. She talks about picking a sheep every Friday for their family and why these experiences deepened her connection to food and perspective. Fariyal talks about moving from Ethiopia to the states at 16 years old, her first experiences with American food, and why she decided to pivot her career to becoming a chef. She talks about graduating from the CIA and landing in the kitchen of the greatest restaurant in the world in Copenhagen and some hallmarks of Scandinavian cuisine. Fariyal shares why she decided to take a year off to rest and prioritize her mental health and leave kitchens to start consulting in the industry. She talks about her experience walking the red carpet at the Met Gala last year and what kind of kitchen culture is important to cultivate. Fariyal reveals the Food Network shows and chefs that are her favorite and why she doesn’t think her cooking style works for competition.
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Find episode transcripts here: https://food-network-obsessed.simplecast.com/episodes/fariyal-abdullahi-on-red-carpet-moments-cooking-at-the-met
MUSIC:
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Jaymee Sire: Hello. Hello and welcome to Food Network Obsessed. This is the podcast where we dish on all things, food with your favorite chefs, food influencers and food network stars. I'm your host, Jaymee Sire. And today we have a talented Ethiopian chef with a Michelin star studded background with us to talk about the rituals of her childhood and what it was like to cook and walk the red carpet at the met gala. She is a chef, an absolute delight to talk to it is fariyal-abdullahi.
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Jaymee: Fariyal, Welcome to the podcast. I’m so excited to be chatting with you today.
Fariyal abdullahi: I'm so excited. I I've been looking forward to this and congrats to you on your web nomination.
Jaymee: Oh, Thank you so much. Yes, we are very excited about that. Very excited to talk to you. As I mentioned, you are a New York city based chef. Your star is shining so bright right now in the food world, and we're going to get to that little bit, but I actually wanted to start off the conversation by touching a bit on your background and some of your earlier experiences with food and cooking, you were born and raised in Ethiopia. So, I was wondering if you could just kind of paint us a picture of what your childhood home, your day-to-day life looked like back then.
Fariyal: Yes so, I was born and raised in Addis Ababa, which is the capital city of Ethiopia. We're such a community-based country. So, most of my childhood was spent with millions of people around, whether it was at home or we were visiting family. I just grew up with a huge community.
Jaymee: I Have to admit, I was stalking your Instagram earlier. I just love all the childhood memories that you share with your followers, whether it's picking up a sheep every Friday on the way home from school, your mom's Sunday coffee ceremony. Can you talk a little bit more about some of these memories that tend to fill your mind when you are maybe feeling nostalgic for home
Fariyal: So, the way I grew up with food, we knew where everything came from. Like there were very little things that came in packages with expiration dates and stuff like that. I knew where my protein came from. So, what I was talking about in my Instagram post is one of my favorite memories. And for me, this was normal because that's all I knew. Every Friday after school, my brother would pick us up from school and we would stop by it's called berthada, which is like a sheep Herding farm. And we would pick a sheep out the herd. And I, remember very vividly; My brother walking around and, look for the best-looking sheep. And he would say, look at their teeth because apparently that's the way to tell their age and the older they are, the less tender the meat.
Fariyal: So, he’d pick a sheep and then he would get it in the truck of our car and then we would go home. And then I would watch that sheep get, you know, slaughtered for our consumption for that week. And then, you know, my mom would go ahead and separate it based on like the dishes you would want to make. So, you know, like the ox tails for soup and all that stuff. And then that's what we would eat for a week. And even our dairy, like we never bought milk from the grocery store and this isn't for every single family in Ethiopia. This is just like my very own experience. we would get milk delivered very fresh, like two or three times a week. Like, in the morning this kid would deliver it. And its raw milk, fresh from the cow. And I remember touching it. It would still be warm. That's how close we were to our food. And then my mom would boil it. And then we would, you know, drink our fresh milk before we went to school.
Jaymee: I love hearing those stories. And I imagine this, you know, connectedness with the food that you kind of grew up with that really shaped your perspective on food throughout your life. How have those experiences really, you know, shaped your, your POV now?
Fariyal: You're that close to your source of food, there's just a huge amount of respect for it. There was no food waste for me growing up. When you’ve looked into the eyes of the animal that you're consuming, it gave up its life to nourish you, so you make sure nothing goes to waste, and that's from every part of it to the skin. We sure that we give it to somebody that can use it in one form or another. So absolutely zero food waste, also like seasonality is such a huge thing for me, because in Ethiopia, we only have like a wet and a dry season. I remember like every rainy season coincided with, when we grew corn. So, every time it rains here, I crave corn because when we were kids, my mom would just put some corn and like roast it on charcoal. And like that association for me, every time it rains here, I'm like, where's my corn
Jaymee:
Fariyal: I need it. So, seasonality. And, just no food wastes. You must respect where your food came from. And, I knew most of the people that grew my food and I knew how much hard work went into it.
Jaymee: That definitely gives you a different perspective than most people, especially here in the states. Do you remember the first thing that you ever learned to cook?
Fariyal: I do. So, I was breastfed until I was two. So, when she was trying to wean me off, I had this thing where I would wake up in the middle of the night and just ask for milk because I would be hungry and she kind of like tricked me with a substitute. I had a sweet tooth when I was a kid, so she would bake a sponge cake and she would fill the middle with gem and then top it with like confectioner’s sugar. So, a couple times a week she would bake it so that when I wake up in the middle night, I would have that to eat. Instead of me asking for milk. And every time she would bake that I would be around. Cause, I loved licking the batter but that just continued into when I was like seven or eight. And at one point I'm like, I've seen you make this, a billion times. Could I just do it myself?
Jaymee:
Fariyal: and that was like the first thing I baked. I'm like, I guess I bake now. I, was like eight.
Jayme: Do you still make that, dish now?
Fariyal:
I, no, I haven't. Since I left Ethiopia. I could use it though, a little comfort food, here and there.
Fariyal: Yeah.
Jaymee: What's one food you grew up with that you wish everybody could experience. Is it that one, or is it something else?
Fariyal: I'm pretty sure a lot of people have had sponge cake. I would say my mom's piriani, it's a rice dish that you cook with a protein and she usually makes it with either lamb or chicken. And then she serves it with crispy shallots and a halapeno Chuckney. It's just a, a perfect dish. And every time my friends used to come over, cause it's very specific to my tribe. So, every time my friends come over, they'd be like, yo, is your mom making piriani today? Like pull up,
Fariyal: We'll come through.
Jaymee: that's awesome. You still have a lot of family there. Yeah.
Fariyal: So, my brother still lives there. He like took over the family business and you know, he still lives in our home. I go back frequently like to visit, but I also have a nonprofit with my friends. We build schools in rural parts of Ethiopia. So, I try to make it back as often as I can.
Jaymee: That's amazing. How did that get started?
Fariyal: So, my best friend, he moved to the states when he was very young. He hadn't been back home to, and like the first time he went to visit was 20 years after he'd moved here. So, he went back to his village and he went back to his elementary school. And when he came back, he was just so touched by how little they had. And he was telling me a story and he was like, I would at least love to build them a library. And I'm like, how much would it cost? And he was like, well, I mean in American dollars it’s probably 2000 and I'm like, let's do it. Let's build them a library.
Jaymee: Yeah.
Fariyal: And then, so he started a nonprofit and from there we're like, let's just build entire schools. Like we could spend all year raising funds and then build schools from there. So, we've been doing it for the last seven years and this year we're building our sixth school.
Jaymee: Wow.
Fariyal: Yeah. And we've expanded into like other projects too. So, in rural parts of Ethiopia, it's usually the boys that go to school cause the girls spend a lot of time taking care of like home duties and most of them don't have access to water. So, it'll be a long Trek to go to the river. They'll spend a couple hours going to the river, getting water for whatever amount of water that they need for the family that whole day. And then they'll come back. So, we noticed that a lot of girls were not attending school and that was the reason. So now we also build water pipelines to like individual homes. So that frees up the girls, they don't have that duty anymore, so they can go to school and now there's schools that they could actually attend.
Jaymee: Yeah, that's incredible. I mean, what is, what is that like for you to be able to give back to the community that you grew up in and, and, and help some of those people there
Fariyal: It's very special. The name of the foundation is Take Care Of Home and that's exactly what it feels like. Taking care of home because I know every single opportunity that I've had, being able to move to America and living out my dreams wouldn't have happened if I didn't have a good education. That was something that my mom stressed from the very beginning, we all went to private schools, all my siblings and I, and I know if I had not been given that opportunity, I wouldn't be where I am today. And I've always had guilt from a brain drain. Like most countries like Ethiopia. One of the biggest things that happens is everybody that has the ability to get an education, they leave. So, all the educated people usually leave the country. That's not to say that, you know, they don't have amazing people back home, but I've always had that guilt. So, this is one way of me ameliorating that guilt. I know I'm giving the same opportunity that I had.
Jaymee: Well, let's talk about your move. You, you moved to LA when you were 16 with the dream to become a doctor. So, first of all, why medicine?
Fariyal: This is my theory, right? There's only three respectable careers you could have as an Ethiopian. And this is when I tell you, it's like very standard across the board. Every, every single family, that is, you have to be a doctor, lawyer or engineer, that's it. Your parents raise you to be one of those three things. That's, the only thing for every single family. And then I'm the youngest of six siblings. And of course, that's what my older siblings did. My brother's an immuno oncologist. He's married to a neurosurgeon. My sister's an internal medicine and her husband's also an internal. So, like I had to follow those footsteps so I'm like, okay, I guess that's what I'm going to do. Go to America and be a doctor. But I didn't.
Jaymee: so, what was the transition like, for you initially when you first got to the states?
Fariyal: There wasn't that much of a culture shock. Cause, I used to come here as a child. Like we used to spend summers out here. So not much of a culture shock, just like minor hiccups. So, I moved to the states when I was 16, but I was already in college at 16 because that's the age that we all graduate high school back home. So, I already felt out of place in college. Like I was just like so young and like starry-eyed up until that point. My whole life I'd gone to a British school, so I didn't have a British accent cause, I grew up watching so many American movies, but I spoke British English. So, there's so many words that don't exist here in America. So, I remember my very first day in college, so in British English, rubber is eraser
Fariyal: So, my very first day in college, I was 16. I asked this kid next to me and I was like, Hey, can I have a rubber? And he's like, yo, Like, Hey everybody, can somebody help her? And I was like, they're so friendly in America. And this girl fell back for me. She's like, sweetie, no eraser.
Fariyal: That's, what you need an eraser. I'm like, what is that? What is an eraser? So, things like that and like struggling in chemistry class. Like I remember getting like my tests back and I would get so many things wrong and I'd compare it to my friends. And we had the same answer and I'm like aluminum. And she's like, that's not an element. This aluminum. And my teacher kept like grading me wrong. And I'm like, but it's the same thing. So small hiccups that I had to get, I had to like overcome, and like learn American English versus British English.
Jaymee: What was the moment that you were like, all right, you know, this isn't for me. I, I would rather do something else. AKA go to culinary school.
Fariyal: Yeah. So, I'd always known that I wanted to cook for a living. Like even when I left Ethiopia, that's what I wanted to do, but then, you know I remember having a conversation with my mom and she's like, well, that's a hobby. Like you can do it after you're done saving people's life. That's what you're going to do. So, I did get my bachelor's in clinical child psychology. And I remember one day I went to UCLA to visit a child and adolescent in mental and behavioral health unit. I was distraught for weeks because I'm such an empath. And I tend to take on other people's energies. And that just affected me in a way where I thought, you know, I don't think I could do this for a living. I could help from afar, but I just need to be in a kitchen after I got my bachelor's. I didn't apply for grad school. I secretly applied to culinary school
Jaymee:
Fariyal: And I was like, if I got accepted it’s a sign, I'm just, I'm, that's what I'm going to do.
Jaymee: I mean, based on what you said, you know, previously that everybody has to do one of these three professions, what kind of support did you have from your family and friends when you finally revealed to them, what your decision was?
Fariyal: My friends were excited. They're like good for you because I only applied to the CIA. I'm like, I'm going to go to the best culinary school or it's nothing at all. So, they're very impressed. They were very excited. I mean, my siblings were cool. My mom, it took her a little bit to hop on board, but eventually like when she started seeing all the cool things that I was doing, she's like my daughter's a chef. Like you know, then she started showing off
Jaymee: Well, like you said, you applied to the CIA and while you were waiting to hear, if you got accepted yet, you decided to hone these culinary skills by traveling to eighteen different countries, which is incredible. You sampled dishes, studied flavors from around the world. What were some of the, your favorite places that you traveled to during that time?
Fariyal: Oh, man. Travel is such a huge part of like my culinary experience. I'm at 44 countries right now.
Jaymee: Wow.
Fariyal: I plan on seeing every single country. I'm going to do it. I'm going to
Jaymee: Do it. That's amazing.
Fariyal: Yeah. But that was like a very huge, I turned a corner during that trip because I did 18 countries. I was gone for three months and I'm like, let me just go to as many countries as I can. And it was just to eat. I just wanted to eat. And that was really important for me because my palette had regressed so much after I moved to America because if you've had Ethiopian food, it's very flavorful and very spicy. So that was my threshold for the first 16 years of my life. And I remember when I first moved to America, I only ever ate at school. My first intro to American food was cafeteria food, community college. And I'm like, this is the worst thing.
Jaymee: Like, So bland Right?
Fariyal: And there's no flavor and way before Beyoncé coined it. I used to walk around with hot sauce in my bag. Because I just needed to impart flavor, but I really did regress because it turned me off to so much food. I'm like I'm either going to eat at home or the only thing I liked eating was… I remember the first time I had like bagel and cream cheese. I'm like, what is this? This is great. It was either Ethiopian food at home or bagel and cream cheese. And that was it. Until when I traveled to these countries, it just opened my pallet up again. I remember having paeya for the first time in Spain, because Ethiopia is a landlocked country and seafood is not a thing. And I was like, what is barka mau? Like what are you guys doing with these feet?
Fariyal: Like it just was just so new to me and just so flavorful. So, opening up my palette to brand new things that I never tried before. Like even being in Turkey, having like nakraJune and Dohma. And I'm like, what? Like, you can spice meat with these warm spices. Just so many brand-new things that I never tried before in Mexico. And I I'm sure I was a Mexican in my past life cause I just love their food so much. But yeah, it opened my pallets, all these new things and I'm like, I could eat more than Ethiopian food and bagel and cream cheese.
Jaymee: You were then accepted into, you attended CIA. And then after graduation moved to Copenhagen and worked at Noma, which is for anyone that doesn't know widely considered one of the best, if not the best restaurants in the world, three Michelin stars. How did that opportunity come about? And what was that experience like, for you fresh out of school?
Fariyal: So, when I went to culinary school, I'd most of the most of my cohort, they already had prior experience. They'd either worked in a restaurant or something. I was going in there with no experience. So, I needed to be on the fast track. And I remember when we were close to graduation, we were, you know, sitting in a circle and everybody's talking about, okay, after your graduation, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. And they asked me and I'm like, I want to work in the best restaurant in the world. and they're like, what? And they're like that's Noma and Copenhagen. I'm like, yeah, that's where I'm going to go. Everybody's like, okay, good for you. Like not really believing in me. And I was like it makes the most sense. We're at the CIA. Like we have so many connections here and I had a chef instructor who was from Denmark and he had done a project with them for like two weeks. And I asked him to write me a letter of recommendation, and he wrote me one and then, and I got accepted.
Jaymee: Wow. And
Fariyal: Right after I was on a plane to, you know, Copenhagen, I'm like, you guys, you must, you have to believe in yourself, but also use the opportunities that you have. What are you talking about? You're going to, you know, do internships and stuff. I'm like, no I'm going to Noma. So, what
Jaymee: Was it like working in that kitchen?
Fariyal: It was very intense. That was my first introduction to the long hours of working in the kitchen. Just like, you know, 14 to 16 hours on your feet all day. But I was so fortunate there they have it's changed since I've been, because they've changed locations, but they have three kitchens. They have the test kitchen, they have the prep kitchen, which is where most interns, you know, do like tedious work, like picking lemon time with, for like six hours. And then there's a production kitchen downstairs where they do all the cooking depending on your own attitude and experience that kind of, that determines where you work. But most interns spend a lot of time in the prep kitchen. And I remember after a month getting to work downstairs in the production, kitchen enough, so excited. And I just got to do so many cool things.
Fariyal: Like we cooked at the mat symposium and I was like fresh out of culinary school. There are all these chefs that are, were attending the mat symposium that I spent, you know, I like reading about them in textbooks like Ellen duas Allen. Passade like just so many chefs that are now eating and I'm getting to cook for them. And it was just like so huge blessing. And I, I remember specifically that week was so stressful cuz like they spend months planning for this event and everything has to be perfect. So for that week, all interns were upstairs. And I remember, you know, it was just like picking my lemon time
Jaymee: That sounds like an incredible experience. I mean, I don't think we have a lot of guests on here with, you know, a knowledge of Scandinavian CU. And so I would love to hear even just a little bit more about kind of some of the hallmarks of dishes in Denmark and their approach to dining
Fariyal: In Denmark. They have something called the law of Genta and it's, it's kind of like a social construct where you should be very content with the bare minimum. So you shouldn't try to outdo your community and have like these huge ambitions. And I think that's very much portrayed in their food. A lot of things are very simple and very basic Denmark is a very cold country. So they have a lot of dishes with potatoes, like things you're able to grow in cold countries. So they have a lot of dish with potatoes and like brass a lot of cabbage. And most of their staple food kind of stuck around from pre-industrial revolution times where things were born out of necessity. So like a lot of their food for like most of their meats are smoked or cured or blind pickled fermented. And it's a, they have a huge coastline. So there's a lot of seafood. Yeah. I hadn't had any Scandinavian food before I moved there. So, you know, the, like a very typical lunch for them would be an open sandwich. So they'd do like a pickled herring onry bread. It's called mold board. I'm pretty sure I never learned how to pronounce it very quickly.
Jaymee: How long did you stay there and what kind of motivated you to come back to the states?
Fariyal: I was there for about six months and I would've, you know, like stayed and continued to work there, but at the time I was in America on a green card and you're not allowed to be gone more than six months at a time. So, it required me to come back every six months and that just like wouldn't have worked.
Jaymee: I know a few years ago you, you decided to kind of take a step away from working at restaurants you took a year off to really prioritize, your mental health, your physical wellbeing. what was that year off like for you?
Fariyal: Amazing. cause, up until that point, I'd spent eight years in a kitchen and I always tell people who don't have restaurant experience that you age in dog years. Because like if you work eight hours, we call that, part-time like, that's a half shift. Yeah. but standing on your feet all day can like take such a toll on you. And like the intensity of the kitchen can take such a mental toll on your mental health. And I remember starting to have back problems before I hit 30 and I went to the doctor, got an MRI and she's like, yeah, you actually have arthritis in your lower back and your knees and you have carpal tunnel in both your wrist, cubital tunnel and your left elbow. And I'm like, what? This doesn't make sense. I'm not 50.
Fariyal: And she's like, well, yeah, it's depends on like how much you use it. Like athletes get arthritis in their twenties. I just felt like I was deteriorating. So I took a year off and I just rested. Like the first couple of months were very hard because I was like, so used to being like, go, go, go and I'd wake up. And there was nothing to do. And it would like drive me crazy. I'd have so much anxiety. But then I was like, just slow down, spend time with your family. Like you've missed so many important milestones that for your family, like weddings, graduations, birthdays, funerals. So, I spent the entire year just making up for that.
Jaymee: How do you continue now that that year is over to still focus on your mental health and really advocate the same for others.
Fariyal: I feel like people don't talk about mental health enough. So, if you talk to me for five minutes, it'll come up on conversation. I just live by the mantra. Like if it doesn't bring me peace, then it's not a part of my journey, no matter who it is that I'm talking to. I find a way to bring it up in conversation and just making sure people prioritize that.
Jaymee: How do you think that that time off prepared you for the phase in life that you currently are in where you're in the industry? You're consulting, you're doing incredible things like cooking at the met gala last year. How did that time off really prepare you for the time you're in now?
Fariyal: That time off really? I definitely gained a lot of mental stamina. Not that I didn't have it before, but there was like a lot of, you know, like the classical analogy of the duck. It looks so calm on the surface, but underneath it's like paddling viciously away. That's how I was before. But after my year off, like I do everything with intention. You know, even joined them at gala. Like I thought I like, I would've been way too scared to do something that big, but you know, after the year, like learning how to live in the present and just taking things one at a time, it prepared me to take on much bigger challenges
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Jaymee: Coming up. Fariyal tells us how she found out she was invited to cook at last year's met gala. So, stick around.
Jaymee: I want to hear more about the met gala because I, I saw that you actually thought the invite was a prank initially. Is
Fariyal: That true? so my first invitation was, I got a call from Marcus Samuelson and I had already been working with him at this point and he was like, it was something that was going to happen. Like, I think he called me like eight months before the met gala. He said, Hey, would you be interested in doing it? And I was like, duh. And that was the only conversation that we had. And then the next thing is like a few months before the met, I got an email from Anna winter. Wow. There was no, there was no subject. So, I was just like scrolling through my email and I was like, okay, like, that should be in spam. So, I wasn't even going to read it. I wasn't even going to read it. I just like scrolled past it. Then I was like, wait a second, Anna, the met gala. Oh my God. And I clicked on it. And I was like her asking me personally, like to,go for the met gala. And I was like, thank God I opened that.
Jaymee: I mean, you know, what was that, what was that experience like that process of, you know, deciding, you know, what you're going to cook and, and how you're going to represent yourself at that, like such a prestigious event.
Fariyal: My gosh. Like the food part was the easiest part because we just had to like provide a menu and submit our recipes. The fact that we didn't actually have to be in the kitchen, but we were attending as guests and do the red carpet. I'm like what?
Jaymee:
Fariyal: Like I spent most of my life in like chef whites and dance goes, I'm not like a very fashionable person per se. Like I don't, I'm not in that industry. So I was, I was just like very stressed out. So, I got a stylist.
Jaymee: Well let's talk about that red carpet look because it was stunning. So beautiful. Could you talk us through just the inspiration for your, for your look and, and what it felt like to actually walk the red carpet in that dress?
Fariyal: Oh my gosh. Yeah. So, the first meeting that I had with my stylist, she is so amazing. You need a stylist. Like I, I tagged her in my Instagram. You need to look her up, her name's gifty, but she was like, we just want you to be comfortable. Like, what's your vision? And I'm like, I literally have no vision. I don't know anything about fashion. All I want to, all I want, all I need is to be super comfortable and just look fly. And I asked, I was like, would it be appropriate? Like the village that I'm from in Ethiopia, we have a gold head piece that we wear for very special occasions. And I was like, would it be appropriate to wear that? I'm like, that's the only thing I want to wear. I don't like, you could totally determine like the dress and all that stuff.
Fariyal: But that's the only thing that I know that I would absolutely love, but can I wear it to the met? And she was like, girl, we are going to design a dress. We're going to design a dress around that head piece. That's going to be the main thing. So yeah, she reached out to a couple of designers and we got this guy Kendra white. He made me this beautiful, beautiful dress. Like he designed it like around my head piece. That was my first experience being in the like public eye. And it was at the met gala with millions of paparazzi, like walking the red carpet. And when I tell you I was so comfortable and calm, and I wasn't nervous at all, just so excited to be there. So, walking up those stairs, I was like, all right, well, this section you're going to get my photo first. Like, I was very like,
Jaymee:
Fariyal: Like, you know, cause the pop like yelling, like turn this way. Like we want to and I'm like, no, no, no. Very calm. Wait your
Jaymee: Turn. Yeah,
Fariyal: Wait. You're excuse me, man. Can you fix my dress? Thank you. but it was so fun. I do have a very embarrassing story.
Jaymee: Oh, let's hear it.
Fariyal: you know, like it, it was a lot of the roads get getting to the met were like blocked off. So, I'm like, just drop me off here. I'm going to walk. So, I walk like two blocks and I ended a bit late. And by the time I got there, all the other chefs had already met Anna. They had done their introductions, set their thank you’s and all that stuff. So, by the time I got there, Marcus was like, you, you just have to find the time. Like there was like so many other people talking to her and he's like, you just have to find a good opportunity and you know, make sure you go introduce yourself. So, I was like north waiting for my moment to talk to Anna and thank her for this amazing opportunity. And she was just, she just had a crowd around her the whole time.
Fariyal: And then I look over at one moment and there's only two people standing with her and I'm like, this is it. I'm going in. So, I, you know, walked up to her and before I could say anything, the there's one of the men standing next to her immediately was like, you look stunning, like, wow, this is such an amazing look. And I was like, thank you. Not really like engaging, cuz I'm like so nervous trying to talk to Anna. And I'm trying to talk to like Mrs. Win, thank you so much for the opportunity. And then the man goes I'm Tom, nice to meet you. And I'm like, great, Tom. So Anna, thank you so much for this opportunity. Right? So then event is over and then a month later, I'm at a dinner table with Marcus and a few of his friends. And they're asking me about my experience at the met. And he was like, well, I'll tell you this. She impressed the heck outta Tom Ford.
Jamyee: Oh wow.
Fariyal: And I was like, when did I impress Tom Ford? And he's like, you met him. He's literally the first person that you talk to
Jamyee: Oh my gosh, that's hilarious.
Fariyal: And that how uninvolved I am in the fashion world. I don't know what anyone like,
Jaymee: I wouldn't know either
Fariyal: I would. Oh. And I was, my shoes were Tom Ford. Oh my God.
Speaker 3
Well,
Fariyal: You
Jaymee: Know what? Next time you meet Tom Ford, you'll have a great story to tell.
Fariyal: Yeah, exactly.
Jaymee: Well, aside from Tom Ford, since you didn't even know who he was, were there any celebrities that had you like starstruck at that event?
Fariyal: I wouldn't say star struck, but there's, you know, I will say starstruck Cynthia ARVO, I'm such a huge fan of hers. It was just like such a fun experience because I was excited to be talking to everyone. And like, people that I look up to were giving me compliments, like, you know, like Mary J blo was like, girl, what is that head piece? Like,
Speaker 3
You,
Fariyal: You look amazing Yara Shahidi. Like she was like, I noticed you from across the room. I'm like, are they me? Like, you know what I mean? I'm like, they are just like so nice and everyone's complimenting me and I'm like, wow, this is my life right now. But yeah, I was just very excited to be there.
Jaymee: Well, have anyone's seen the photos from, from that event? I, I, I'm not surprised. So if you go on, go on your Instagram and see it because it is, it is stunning for sure.
Fariyal: Thank you. Thank you.
Jaymee: And as you mentioned this opportunity came out through your mentor and obviously a food network, favorite Marcus Samuelson, who was also from Ethiopia. How did you guys initially meet?
Fariyal: So the first time we met I was eating at red rooster and I was sitting with a friend who is also in the industry. So Marcus had stopped by the table and we introduced ourselves, but it was very brief. And then several years later, Marcus and I ended up being in, featured in a, in the same cookbook called a place at the table. And it features the nation's top 40 foreign born chefs. And I think that kind of put me on his radar and he ended up reaching out and wanted to know if, you know, like if I, if, if I wanted to work with him and I was like, go again.
Jaymee:
Fariyal:Yeah. So I've done some consulting for him and done a bunch of cool projects. We opened a restaurant in Baja, Mar. So I was in the, I spent I, The Bahamas doing that, you know, like met gala help him out with a lot of TV appearances. So just really, really cool stuff.
jaymee :What have you been able to learn from Marcus as a mentor?
Fariyal: The biggest thing I've learned from him and honestly, it's the biggest gift he's given me. So as a black woman, a immigrant, a Muslim like young having leadership positions in the kitchen every day, you're sort of reminded of how much that space is not built for you. So that's always been a huge struggle for me being in the industry. And he just taught me to believe in myself, like, there's, there's no room for self doubt your here, because you've earned your spot. Mm-Hmm,
Jaymee: Yeah. No, that's huge. I think that's, you know, a good reminder for everybody, for sure. You mentioned that you helped him open that restaurant at Baja, Mar after that experience, what's important to you, you, when you are laying the, the foundation for a new restaurant.
Fariyal: So, the most important thing when you're opening the restaurant is knowing that you're setting the tone and the trajectory, how successful that restaurant is gonna be. So if you are starting off at a hundred percent, you know, you're gonna get to like 50 to 70, that'll be like the operating standards. So you gotta go in full force. So the most important thing is the like setting the standards. So I always go in with 200%,
Jaymee:
Fariyal: 200% setting. The culture is super important because when you're working in a kitchen know, most people that work in kitchens, we spend more time with each other than we do with our families.
Jaymee: Yeah. No, I think that's super important. As I mentioned at the top of the conversation, you are New York city based. I live in Brooklyn as well. I like to ask our guests, what are some of your favorite spots to eat in New York city? I know that there that's like a huge blanket question, but
Fariyal: I remember like the first time I moved to New York reading the statistic that like, if you ate out every day for your three meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it would take you 27 years. Wow. To eat at every single place or something. And I was like, yeah, this makes a lot of sense. There's a lot of restaurants. I have been gone for two years, even though I move back in a couple of days, but from memory there's Chuco I don't know if you've Chuco is my favorite Japanese restaurant. They only, I
Jaymee: Haven't
Fariyal: Yet. Oh my gosh, no, I wanna wait.
Jaymee: No, wait, wait. Have I been to Chuco maybe? Is that, is it like like inside is very like unique looking like I don't. Yeah,
Fariyal: So like the outside is very unassuming. I remember it took me a while to find the place, like there's no name the door, like it it's very unassuming, but once you go in, there's only a sushi bar. So I think they only have like 12 to 14 seats if I remember correctly. But that's my favorite
Jaymee: love
Fariyal: Fish. So those are some of the places. Yeah. So those are the places that I would like treat myself do
Jaymee: Besides New York city, what are some of your favorite food cities?
Fariyal: You know, like I know like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, or like the culinary meccas, but I feel LA is so undervalued. Like I've, I've been in LA for two years and I'm like the, the diversity in like the spectrum. Like you could go to any motion, Michelin restaurant, but also like have you know, like super unassuming places is that it would be like your grandma's cooking.
Jaymee: Yeah.
Fariyal: I love LA. LA's a great place to eat.
Jaymee: No, I agree. What are some of your favorite spots there?
Fariyal: In LA. Oh my gosh. So I just discovered the sushi restaurant. Try to remember their name, but I've eaten their three times last week.
Jaymee: Mm-Hmm
fariyal : and yeah, I like broke my fast I'll I'll get back to you when I remember the name, but like okay.
Jaymee: People
Fariyal: Are also discovering it and it keeps getting busier and busier every time I, I go, but like, yeah. I'll let you know.
Jaymee:
Fariyal: I'm an iron chef junkie. I, yeah. I love iron chef so much like the, like
jaymee: The OG iron chef, like the oh,
fariyal: GE iron chef. That was like one of the first things I started watching. When I moved to America, I was hooked on iron chef America. And then anything Bobby plays in like,
jaymee: He's incredible.
fariyal: He is awesome. I like, I remember moving to America, like 16 years old. I'm like, I think this guy knows what he's talking about.
Speaker 4:
Fariyal: Yeah.
Jaymee: Is there a food network chef that you would like to cook with? Perhaps
Fariyal: Him probably. Yeah. Bobby fllay
Jaymee: Bobby flay
Fariyal: Would be so awesome.
Jaymee: If you were on a food network competition show, which one do you think you would do all on?
Fariyal: The first thing that pops in my head, it's going to be my first guest judge appearance.
Jaymee: Okay.
Fariyal: On Alex versus America in a couple of weeks. Oh,
jaymee : Amazing. Congratulations. But thank
fariyal: You. I'm so excited, but I'm also not going to lie to myself or your audience. I like my style of cooking. Like, I don't know how they do it when they go on competition shows. Cause my style of cooking in the like very much, like, I need to think through things and like none of this play. So I, I don't think I would do very well at a competition. So I'm not going to lie. However, if it was like competing, like if it was eating, if that was the competition. Yeah. They would just have to build a new show around me where I'm like eating as my competition.
Speaker 4
Fariyal: What is the craziest thing? She can eat? What? Like how fast? I don't know, whatever it is. Like I, yeah, I could do that.
Jaymee:
Fariyal: You go. There you go. You would watch that. Wouldn't you?
Jaymee: I would 100%. Watch that for sure.
Fariyal: It's the tapings coming up in a couple weeks. Yeah.
Jaymee: How did, how did that come about?
Fariyal: They reached out to me. Awesome. And they asked me if I wanted to do that. I'm like, duh
Jaymee: Have you, have you met? I love
Fariyal: Alex.
Jaymee: Have you met her yet?
Fariyal: I have not, but I think so highly of her and I'm like, yeah. You know, I can't, I better not mess up.
Speaker 4
Jaymee: Well, I'm sure you'll be great. Aside from that, what, what is next for you?
Fariyal: So I'm moving back to New York city in two days. I'm right now packing up my life in LA. Wow. to open up Marcus's new rest or wrong, which I can't say too much about, but I will tell you that we're working on the menu and
Jaymee: Okay.
Fariyal: It's gonna be great.
Jaymee: Okay. Well, we will look forward to more news about that feral. It has been so lovely chatting with you. We are gonna wrap things up with little rapid fire round, and then we have one final question for you here on food network. Obsessed. All right. Ready? Yeah. Morning ritual.
Fariyal: All right. I like to stay in bed for an hour, listening to a podcast and then I, and then I play Wordle and that kind of stuff to how successful my day's gonna be.
Jaymee: Okay. Does it ruin your day if you, if you can't get the Wordle?
Fariyal: Yeah. So I'm like Wordle queen. My sisters hate me because I usually get it under a minute.
Jaymee: Wow.
Fariyal: So the days that doesn't happen, I'm just in a funk all day. I'm like, I'm not worthy.
Speaker 4
Jaymee: All right. Favorite vacation spot
Fariyal: Anywhere. Mountainous. I'm a mountain. I'm I think I'm a snow Leo in my past life. Cause I love
Jaymee: Mountains.
Fariyal: I would love it.
Jaymee: One thing on your bucket list,
Fariyal: I've pretty much done everything, but I'm still not certified for scuba diving, so I'd have to get my scuba certification
Jaymee: And you got to check off all the countries too, I guess
Fariyal:
That yes. Like what is it? 150 left to go. That's it.
Jaymee: Okay. Favorite comfort food.
Fariyal: Dark chocolate
Jaymee: what song can't you stop listening to
Fariyal: I'm kind of on a Doja cat kick right now. I can't stop listening to her. Yeah. And I just watched her at Coachella and I was like, she's such a great performer.
Jaymee: So who’s the most awesome person you would like to have dinner with?
Fariyal: I'm going to cheat and say the Obamas. I know it's people, but
Jaymee: No, that's both on my list as well. Yeah. There you go. I always say that favorite late-night snack.
Fariyal: I don't really snack late at night, but the few times that I do, it's always a craving for in and out.
Jaymee: Okay. Fair.
Fariyal: Out for a drive at 1:00 AM and you know, get the number two with onions, animal fries, vanilla shake.
Jaymee: Yep. Best advice you've ever received.
Fariyal: Don't ignore your intuition. All
Jaymee: Right. So, our last question, not rapid fire. You can take as much time on this as you want. We ask everybody the same question and that is what would be on the menu for your perfect food day. So we want to hear your breakfast, your lunch, your dinner, dessert. If you like dessert, there are no rules. So, you can travel time, travel, spend as much money as you want. Anybody can cook these meals for you. You can cook them. It's your day?
Fariyal: Breakfast. I would start off at Russ daughters or a little lock spread. It's my favorite, favorite thing to eat? You
Jaymee: Got to go back to your, yeah. Your bagel
Fariyal: By bagel. I'm telling back to your roof. My favorite thing in America. I'm like bagels and cream cheese. Okay. Yeah. So, it would definitely be that and caviar flight, cause I'm a sucker for caviar. Then I would have brunch obviously DIMM. Oh yes. I'm not going to get full of like bagels and caviar.
Jaymee:
Fariyal: So a dim sum. I love me some dim sum and then I would have a late lunch. It would have to be Ethiopian food. I would do a vegetarian combo. My favorite is MIS, which is a lenal stew and kits full, which is a beef tartar. You know what? We're not getting full. Right. So, like, no let's throw in my mom's Bri too.
Jaymee: Yes, absolutely. Let's go
Fariyal:
Jaymee: Don't count calories. Don't
Fariyal: On don't count. We don't have a me gala dress fit into anymore. So yeah, I we're going to sneak in something between lunch and dinner. We're going to go to Mexico and have some tacos. Some amazing. Yeah. Lang yeah. It's langua. yes. I'll love some tongue tacos.
Jaymee: All right. And anything for dessert? Or are you, are you done after sushi?
Fariyal: Gosh, see, I don't really have a sweet tooth, but I am on like an ice cream kick right now. There's a place here, salt and straw where you have like all these funky flavors. And I had something the other day, it was like pair and blue cheese. And my friends were like no
Jaymee: I think I had, I think one time I went, they had like, I want to say it was bone marrow or, and cherries or something like that.
Fariyal: I would eat that. Like
Jaymee: It was delicious. It was so good. That's I know
Fariyal: So, I'm like, I don't have a sweet tooth, but I will eat salt and straw every day.
Jaymee: All right. Thank you so much for taking the time we are. So, looking forward to seeing what comes next as star continues to, to rise in the food world, but so much fun chatting with you and hearing all your stories.
Fariyal: Thank you so much. I had a blast chatting with you and when I move to New York, we'll eat out in one of these restaurants.
Jaymee: Yes, please. Let's do it.