A Cardiff church hall isn’t perhaps the first place you’d expect to find a Pakistani cafe that serves delicious brunches and authentic curries.
But, it’s where a former further education teacher has set up her business with an all female team and an aim to encourage more women from the local community to try their hand in the professional kitchen.
Sabrina Khan, aged 48, is the owner of Maasi’s, which opened in July this year in St Luke’s Church Hall in Victoria Park.
Sabrina grew up in Grangetown and Penylan but moved to England in 2010 to further her teaching career.
However, when Sabrina came back to Wales in 2018 when she became a grandmother, she found it impossible to get a teaching job.
“I really, really struggled to find work in Wales, I went through hundreds of applications, interviews and I just could not secure a job, because in Wales they tend to self-recruit. So unless you're in a college, the jobs tend to go internally,” said Sabrina.
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With a lifelong passion for food instilled by her dad, who sadly passed away with Covid earlier this year, Sabrina turned to an alternative career path.
“We learned to cook from my dad, he was a great foodie and he used to throw massive dinner parties,” said Sabrina.
“He taught me to respect and appreciate good quality ingredients and make the most out of them. I miss him every day.”
Sabrina initially tested the water in the professional kitchen with a pop-up at Dusty’s Pizzas in Canton in 2019.
“They offered the opportunity for people like myself, budding chefs, to have a go at running the kitchen for a supper club,” said Sabrina.
“We did a three course meal and I think we sold 65 tickets. I loved the buzz, the adrenaline rush and the feedback, even though we were knackered.”
With family such an important part of Sabrina’s life, it provided the inspiration for the name of her business, Maasi’s, which means auntie in Punjabi.
"I'm one of five sisters and we've always used the older words. In our culture, you don't call somebody by their name; your mother's sister, or anybody related, your mother's friends, you would call them maasi,” said Sabrina.
“So when my sisters had children, I became maasi. If you were ever in trouble, you could rely on getting comfort from your maasi. So I associate love, food and safety with maasi.”
Following the success of the supperclub, Maasi’s opened a stall at Sticky Fingers street food market when they were still located in Cardiff city centre. And when lockdown hit at the start of this year, Sabrina started making takeaway samosas with one of her sisters using their mum’s recipe.
“We were making four or five hundred samosas a week and there were just the two of us. And so we recruited my cousin and my other sister and the feedback was amazing,” said Sabrina.
“We were cooking from my kitchen and so we decided we needed some commercial premises to meet demand.”
A visit to St Luke’s Church in Victoria Park provided the chance for Sabrina to open her own cafe.
“We came to have a look at their kitchens and they offered us the cafe too. There used to be a cafe run by Innovate Trust but they had gone during the lockdown. I thought, ‘well, I can't get a job in what I trained to do, so why not do this?”’ said Sabrina.
Maasi’s opened in July 2021 and serves a menu of Pakistani breakfast and lunch dishes with a few global influences. Everything is made from scratch from their homemade samosas and ‘naanwiches’ to shakshuka served with parathas.
"There's a story to every dish that we make. Our beans are cooked in onion and have spice in them and that stems from when my father and mother first arrived in this country. Back then there wasn't any meat available that was halal so their protein intake was beans. But, they didn't like the beans as they were so my auntie used to cook them in spice,” said Sabrina
"We also do Lala's eggs on a Sunday. My dad used to make us breakfast on a Sunday and he used to make the biggest parathas in the world with a pile of spicy scrambled eggs, onion, fresh tomato, chilli, coriander and a blend of spices.”
Whilst Sabrina’s sisters originally helped with the business, they’ve since returned to their full-time jobs. So, Sabrina has recruited an all female team and hopes to employ more women from the local community.
"My vision is to have an all female team. I would like to offer the opportunity for women to work,” said Sabrina
"I think there are women who cook at home out of necessity. And there are women like me who absolutely love it, and are interested in it, and they're the women I want to employ. They're the women I want to give that opportunity to because a lot of them don't have that.”
“There may be a language barrier, there may be an age barrier or there may be cultural differences. As a teacher, I know that given the right opportunity, it will allow me to build their confidence.”
"I've been in contact with Bawso, Women Connect and a load of organisations, just to see if there are any women who've got a little bit of kitchen experience who would want to work here."
The church has also been very supportive of the new business.
"People have commented and people have said, 'how did you end up here?' and 'oh my God, there's a big cross in the church hall', but we're all human beings first and foremost," said Sabrina.
"It's a very positive relationship. I always keep a table aside for them on a Sunday after church where they come and have a cup of tea."
When she has a full strength team in place, Sabrina plans to open the cafe for longer hours and organise more regular evening curry clubs and Sunday lunches.
"I have a whole raft of recipes and ideas but at the minute it's staffing issues that are holding us back,” said Sabrina.
"At the curry club, we do a two or three course meal with dishes that I grew up eating. Our Sunday lunch is a full roast chicken with all the elements of a roast dinner but everything's got a little bit of spice.”
By sharing her family and community’s recipes, Sabrina hopes to honour her Pakistani heritage.
“It's just sad, because our parents' generation are now passing away. And there's been a lot of loss over the last two years. So one way of retaining these recipes and the food is to put them down in writing. Having lost dad in the way that we lost him very suddenly, I think it's really important to honour where we came from and that is done through food.”
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