An entrepeneur has launched her own food brand - thanks to a secret family recipe passed down to her from her late father.
Mother-of-two Shadia Al Hili has launched Cuzena - the first company to introduce Ful Madamous, a traditional Middle Eastern fava bean dish - to the British market in a ready made format.
The product - perfected in Shadia's kitchen in Worsley - will feature on the menu of a new restaurant franchise opening across the country.
The break comes after Shadia's hopes of getting the product in major high street food retailers were dashed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Shadia, mum to Zena, 16, and a son, Eilsel, 24, grew up in Salford with her Moroccan and Yemeni parents.
She told the Manchester Evening News how her late father, Ali Abdulla, introduced her to Ful Madamous when she was five years old.
"It was my dad's idea of beans on toast," she told the Manchester Evening News .
"We would have Ful Madamous on bread for breakfast or an early snack.
"He would make it for us when we were children because he liked it so much.
"It is a food that gives the human body everything it needs and he saw it as a healthy option to feed his kids'.'
Shadia was 12-years-old when she started making Ful Madamous with her dad and when she moved out at 18 she started making it herself using his recipe.
"It has the most humble ingredients of fava beans, tomatoes, garlic and spices," Shadia added.
"The blend is the secret and it determines the end result.
"I would make it for my friends and they loved it.
"They used to come over and say 'can I have some of that stuff?'
"I suddenly had a lightbulb moment and decided to set up my own business."
Things were going well until Covid-19 threw everything into turmoil.
The entrepreneur says she got a listing in stores such as Ocado, Booths and Selfridges in March 2020 just before the pandemic hit - with Booths giving her a platform to introduce her range of products for the first time.
"We worked for two years prior, going into this business having no experience of the food world, taking it from a kitchen recipe to a commercial kitchen to then be introduced to supermarkets," she said.
"We launched into 24 stores as well as Selfridges.
"We had arranged with students to do sampling sessions and for the first two weeks everything sold out - it was so exciting.
"But then the pandemic hit and all the sampling, because of the new Covid rules, was closed down.
"So then we had a new product that was just out there on its own.
"Four days before the launch the Covid rules got even tighter and we heard from Ocado who pulled our product from being sold saying due to the pandemic they were limiting new launches to take pressure off the warehouses, who were stretched due to all the panic buying.
"We were absolutely devastated.
"We had a team of four, including family members, and I had to furlough them.
"My daughter was at home doing GCSEs and it was so scary.
"Everyone was worried, hospitality was closing down, the footfall wasn't there and I had just launched this new business.
"I had invested so much and I thought I was going to lose everything.
"I had to keep going."
Rather than give up completely, Shadia decided to get innovative and think how she could still market her products in the time of Covid.
"It had all started in the kitchen for me, making foods I had eaten as a little girl, so it was a natural defence to go back in the kitchen again," she said.
"I started looking at a range of dips such as hummus and babaganoush you can eat on the go with pretzels in some kind of Covid ready packaging - so that is what I launched.
"They are products that can be put in a food to go sector such as service stations and vending machines.
"Hearing so many hospitality horror stories, I felt determined I was not going to lose my business.
"I still went to my empty office alone each day and I think that was a way of keeping the momentum going.
"Being a single mum it was hard leaving my daughter at home every day on Zoom lessons while I tried to keep things moving.
"I knew I wanted to continue making Middle Eastern food, which is very simple and largely vegan based, widely accessible."
Three months ago, Shadia got the lucky break she needed.
She says: "A fellow food business owner Nick White, who I met two years ago at a food exhibition, got in touch to say he had tried my products and was really impressed.
"I was thrilled when he said he wanted me to work with him on a franchise of restaurants he is opening across the country, with business partner Rob Lake, including two premises in Hale, South Manchester and one in Manchester city centre.
"Barns House Restaurant is a flexitarian restaurant and Flex is a separate food to go eatery next door that is completely inclusive of your diet whether you are a meat eater, a vegan, or a vegetarian."
Shadia says the idea is to bring families back to the table to eat in an environment where, despite any differences in diet, nobody is excluded. She says the concept aligns perfectly with her own food brand's ethos that food is meant to be shared.
The food to go eatery openson April 12 this year and the Hale restaurant is set to open on May 17 - both on The Square, Hale Road.
A Manchester city centre restaurant is opening in 2022 and other franchises are set to open in Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham and Sheffield.
"I will be supplying them with a range of rice box meals, wraps and dips, many containing my recipe and helping Nick and Rob to develop their menu.
"My dream was to roll out a full Middle Eastern dining experience and working with the restaurant is bringing me one step closer to achieving that dream.
"Having my own business and taking that risk is what separates me from anyone working for an employer - but the positive side is that I get to live my life without regret.
"We are in uncertain times but you just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep trying.
"People are always ready to accept something that adds value to their lives and we just want to make simple Middle Eastern food accessible and easy to understand."
Nick says Shadia's brand fits well with his restaurant.
He said: "Flex is flexitarian and about flexibility and it is all about reducing meat consumption.
"By combining our thought processes we can showcase some of her products
"I am very excited and really looking forward to it.
"People can bring their own alcohol and we will be offering very good quality food that is both plant based and meat based, offering people a choice.
"We are looking forward to having Shadia's Ful Madamous featuring on our menu."
Shadia says her dad, who died 18 years ago, had an emotional bond to the dish as it connected him to his Middle Eastern roots and love of Yemen.
The dish was traditionally favoured by poorer people as an inexpensive meat substitute.
"Here I am, bringing the most humble of the things he introduced me to into the market and into the country he loved," she said.
"I like to think he's looking down at me now and smiling at what I am doing.
"After such a difficult and unstable year I am now really excited and hopeful for the future."
