Chef Hawa Hassan on the Beauty and Complexity of Somali Cooking—and 3 Recipes You Can Try Now
When I was seven, my mother made another difficult choice. She sent me alone to Seattle so I could have opportunities she could not provide in Kenya. The separation was painful, especially for a Somali child raised in a culture where family is central. I did not understand why I had to go. I only knew I was boarding a long flight away from everything familiar.
Seattle greeted me with the cold of November, my first time experiencing winter. I learned English, joined the basketball team, and went to Tops Elementary. I missed my mother and my siblings. I missed cooking canjeero with her. I missed hearing Somali being spoken on the street.
Years later, after high school, modeling and moving to New York, I reunited with my family in Oslo. Fifteen years had passed. In that time, my mother had remarried, raised more children and opened two shops. I walked into her home as an adult, but emotionally I felt seven again. The reunion brought joy, tension, and a recognition of everything we had both survived.
That trip forced me to confront a feeling I had carried for years: the quiet wound of separation, even when the decision had been made out of survival. It also led me to a new question. Where are the stories of people like us, who survived conflict, displacement and rebuilding. People who held onto culture through food, memory and tradition.
That question redirected my life. Food became my entry point to understanding identity and belonging. In kitchens across Brooklyn, Liberia, Beirut, Kinshasa, and San Salvador, I met families who used ingredients, recipes and humor to stay connected to who they are.
Somali history helps explain this resilience. The region has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era. For thousands of years, Somalis lived along one of the most strategic coastlines in the world, which made the area a center for trade between Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Ancient Egyptians referred to it as the Land of Punt. Traders from Arabia, Persia, India, and later China moved through Somali ports. Mobility, commerce, and adaptation became part of Somali identity.