My name is Yahya Noor, I am originally from Somalia. My family and I migrated to a refugee camp in Mombasa, Kenya the civil war. We had lived in the camp for many years and became accustomed to the daily living of survival.
Read Chef Yahya’s story here
In 1997, we were granted the status of refugees to the U.S. We have always dreamed to come to “the country where dreams become reality” when we landed in Michigan with my family. It was up to us to live the American dream.
It wasn’t easy to see those dreams to unravel, not like what we had seen in the movies that we watched in the “theater” in the camp, 10 inch black and white televisions stacked on top of each other. We had to become accustomed to a new culture which meant we had to learn a new language to gain the benefits and let some other things go. But one thing we have not let go of is the rich food we came with.
We come from a big family where cooking happens all day and every day. One of our dreams has always been able to share the dishes that my siblings and I enjoyed every day to the world – especially in the US where it’s a melting pot.
