Today we’d like to introduce you to Rana Kamal.
Hi Rana, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Growing up as first generation Palestinian, we grew up with a father and mother that really valued their roots, traditions and customs. Food was and is a way to appreciate and celebrate our Middle Eastern heritage in America. My brothers and I were spoiled with the best homemade Middle Eastern food, especially hummus. But outside of our home and our family restaurant, The Mediterranean Cruise Cafe, we rarely saw our culture represented at grocery stores besides in specialty or international groceries. In mainstream grocery stores, hummus was being sold by big box-retailers that tasted nothing like the true, authentic chickpea dip we knew and loved. This sparked the idea to a create a brand that represents and celebrates true Middle Eastern food. We wanted to reclaim our narrative that has been mis- and underrepresented for far too long.
Baba’s began as a side-hustle for my brother Khalid and I. We worked on slowly building the company while working full-time jobs. I was a TV host at the CW23 and Khalid the GM at the restaurant. Since none of us had experience in starting a food brand, we hired a food consultant to help us keep our hummus true to the original, family recipe, but extend it’s shelf life all while remaining a clean product. We chose the name Baba’s (Baba means father in Arabic) as a way to pay homage to our father who has given us the most wonderful foundation and taught us what hard work and success looks like, especially as an immigrant. We launched in January 2018 with three flavors and hit the ground running. Today, Baba’s has 8 hummus flavors; Baba G’noosh; Tzatziki; a line of pita bread and falafel. We are on the shelves of Whole Foods Market, Kowalski’s, Lunds and Byerlys, Hy-Vee and many co-ops and natural food stores across Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We have run into many challenges over the past four years. Everything from running a startup without business experience to wearing all sorts of hats everyday as a founder has been a challenge. But I believe if we really knew what we were signing up for and all that comes with running a business, we may not have done it. But I think being naive and really believing in our idea wholeheartedly allowed us to jump in headfirst and take a leap of faith.
One of the biggest challenges we have encountered thus far is the shelf life of our product. In the first year of our business, it was a real struggle. We worked with a food consultant to help us extend the shelf life of our family recipe without adding artificial preservatives. We were able to achieve that with a 5-week shelf life. But after we launched, our shelf life began to fail us. Sometimes it would be 5 weeks, but many times it would be 3 or 4 weeks. It was incredibly frustrating, especially because we had no idea what we were doing wrong. We would retrace our steps and turn to our with our food consultants for help.
Eventually we would discover that the commercial kitchen we were working out of was also renting out to another business that was using yeast in the same blender that we used to make our hummus. It turns out yeast was the catalyst that was affecting our shelf life. It was extremely frustrating and sometimes we felt completely defeated because we had no idea what we were doing at times. But even when we felt like the walls were crashing down, we kept going. Once we figured out the problem, we had to make a decision on if we should continue working in the commercial kitchen. We ultimately decided to build a small kitchen in the basement of our restaurant. It was the best decision for our company because we were then able to control our environment as a whole.
Today, we are beginning to outgrown our small production room in the basement of our family restaurant and are looking for a larger manufacturing facility to accommodate our growing company.
We’ve been impressed with Baba’s, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Baba’s is a modern, Middle Eastern food brand. It is a taste of the Palestinian-American experience. It’s is a true mix of our Palestinian-American identity through food and culture. Our super creamy, dreamy traditional hummus embodies the authentic, original hummus from our city Jerusalem. Our spin-off flavors, like zesty za’atar and dilly dill pickle are the representation of our playful, rebellious and ‘melting-pot’ American side.
There are very few Palestinian-American food brands in the United States in mainstream grocery stores. Our mission is to bring our rich, tasty, authentic and diverse food to the forefront in a contemporary, approachable and playful way. Baba’s hopes to continue to expand its line to offer the very best Middle Eastern-American products.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Networking is so important for any business, new or old. Reach out to founders who are a few steps ahead of you and ask for advice. Ask questions. They have been there before you and paved the road. And in most cases, they are happy to share their failures and successes in order for you to avoid mistakes and be successful on your own journey.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://lovebabas.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatbabas
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eatbabas
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/eatbabas
Image Credits
Christine Armbruster
