The Tamesis
Growing up, Ifrah F. Ahmed never planned to become a chef.
Ahmed was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, and came to the United States as a child after the civil war broke out in Somalia. In 1996, her family resettled in Tukwila, Washington, as part of an early wave of Somali refugees who later formed a community there. In their new home, Ahmed’s mother made it her mission to ensure that Ahmed and her siblings stayed connected to their Somali identity, even as she worked multiple jobs and cared for the children. Food played a vital role in this mission and sowed the seeds that years later would lead to Ahmed becoming a chef and author, eventually creating her debut cookbook, Sumalia: food, memory and migrationnow available.
First, she had to learn the oral traditions of Somali cuisine. When Ahmed was in elementary school, her mother began teaching her how to cook classic Somali dishes. At times, Ahmed had mixed feelings about the classes, feeling they were part of a set of gendered expectations. But she began to realize that through her mother’s cooking classes, she was learning more than just the ingredients and techniques needed to make the perfect canjeero (sour-fermented pancakes) or sambuus (dumplings).
“It helps to know the recipe,” Ahmed said Fashion. “But it’s almost like she taught me more than just What we eat but how What we eat really teaches me who we are. “
Ahmed quickly discovered her passion and curiosity for food, which was fostered by her mother. “I’ve been a huge Food Network fan since I was very young,” she said. She would become “overly obsessed” with “classic American foods” like pancakes and chicken burgers, and loved figuring out how to make them. She liked Anthony Bourdain, who combined her interests in food and geopolitics. She valued academic achievement (her work paid off; she was valedictorian) and initially pursued a career in law.
After college, Ahmed worked with Somali refugee students in Seattle Public Schools. She got married and started law school, but found she kept bringing her legal work home with her. Cooking remained her passion, but she didn’t consider it her life’s work. As the eldest daughter of an immigrant family, the expectations placed on oneself are hard to shake.
“I never thought of food as a serious career because often, when you come from these backgrounds, you feel like you have to have a career that translates into something that might make up for some of the sacrifices that your parents made,” Ahmed said. “I think a lot of immigrant and refugee kids can probably relate, that transitioning into the food industry isn’t always easy. I also never really saw people like me having the career that I dreamed of.”
