Rewire

(soft upbeat music) - The kitchen feels like a natural place for our family.

(soft upbeat music) There's just something about the intuition of being a kitchen like you know how to move in a kitchen with certain people and the conversations are so comfortable in there.

I mean, our family loves food and everything revolves around food.

So, in the kitchen as soon as I could reach the counter.

and everything revolves around food.

That's when I fell in love with cooking.

We grew up eating chutney on our kitchen counter, it was like our ketchup and you can put it on anything.

We grew up eating chutney on our kitchen counter, So, anything off the grill, fish tacos, pizza, eggs.

About four years go, we were having lunch at my mom's house and she added fresh ginger to the recipe and it totally took it to the next level.

It's was so delicious that I slammed my fist on the table and I said, we need to bottle this It's was so delicious that I slammed my fist and we need to share it everyone.

I mean some people quite don't know like what chutney is.

I mean some people quite don't know Some people are like, oh pesto, and we're like, almost.

Chutney's pretty versatile.

There's are a lot of different cultures that have chutney.

Chutney's pretty versatile.

Our chutney is more tangy and citrusy.

People love the fresh taste of it and you can put it on anything.

Maazah means flavor in Farsi.

My family's from Afghanistan and you use this word to describe food.

You use it to describe like, a really great summer night.

and you use this word to describe food.

It's been a little challenging being a Afghani-American in this country right now so being able to use food to connect with people that don't look like me or people that don't usually connect to connect with people that don't look like me with people that look like me, is just really powerful.

So, yes you don't know what chutney is maybe you've never tried it before, you don't know where it comes from but come to our table and sample it.

Now we're friends!

(laughing) - [Friend] Oh my gosh, is that your mom?

- [Yasameen] Yeah, summer at the lake - [Friend] Oh my gosh, is that your mom?

grilling ka-bobs is my favorite memory.

- [Friend] Oh my gosh, is that your mom?

- I came here as a student, long time ago.

This is why we eat all the time back home and it's always present at the table This is why we eat all the time back home anywhere you go and in our family they have to have chutney and homemade pickle.

- [Woman] Who's gonna go first?

they have to have chutney and homemade pickle.

- Is it like ketchup and mustard in American tables?

Chutney's present in our household, you know?

And to share with other people, it is our culture.

Chutney's present in our household, you know?

Sharing our culture.

(soft music) Sharing our culture.

- Food has been a super important part of our lives growing up and I credit all that to my mom.

She is the brains and the taste buds behind the chutney.

The style of my mom's approach to cooking is very, like she just has this way about her where she's just super comfortable like she just has this way about her and I wanna emulate that as much as I can.

So I'm trying to learn her tips 'cause she does not measure anything.

So I'm trying to learn her tips So it's very hard to learn her recipes.

So I'm trying to learn her tips So I'm trying to pick up the intuition that she has with cooking.

- She's truly the taste buds in the kitchen and we measure things but she'll take the salt and just go, nope, needs more salt.

and we measure things but she'll take the salt (laughing) and we measure things but she'll take the salt Today we're producing at the Good Acre Kitchen.

It's a really cool space and they have a really cool commercial kitchen that makers can rent and create different products out of.

and they have a really cool commercial kitchen We've been here since about nine a.m., and this is probably our fastest production day.

We just got through producing about 500 bottles.

(upbeat dance music) - I feel like my sister and I have always talked about food and making that some sort of business.

And when we had this chutney that day that my sister had said, it just, something just, sprung for us and we're like, this is want to share with the world.

- I studied business in my undergrad and so I have like a deep connection with business and how it makes you feel empowered and plan out your future in a really cool way.

I love being an entrepreneur and owning my own business 'cause I have the opportunity to work with some amazing women.

'cause I have the opportunity I take care of most of the business side of things.

My sister Sheilla is the creative one.

I take care of most of the business side of things.

She's the one that made the entire brand and all of the packaging.

My sister Nassa's the brains.

Her background is in microbiology.

My dad comes and helps.

My husband helps.

My dad comes and helps.

We have cousins that get in on the fun.

It's a party.

File one on the cart!

That one, regular!

Honestly the hardest thing of being a small business owner Honestly the hardest thing is knowing if you're doing it right Honestly the hardest thing and I think you just have to do it.

(laughing) The fear of if you're doing it right never goes away.

(laughing) (liquid splattering) - I think the biggest thing that helped us was making connections with other small businesses or just other people in general.

The more people that you know I think the easier it would get for us because they would give us guidance or support I think the easier it would get for us or did you try this place, or did you try that place?

(upbeat synth music) We feel really welcomed in the small business community.

There's so many people out there in the small business community.

that are willing to help you out.

Connect you with other people.

It's been really really great.

- When you own your own business or you have your own side-hustle on the weekends it can feel like a sacrifice.

or you have your own side-hustle on the weekends I mean there are so many days or you have your own side-hustle on the weekends where we were slogging through the kitchen or you have your own side-hustle on the weekends and getting through dishes or you have your own side-hustle on the weekends at the end of the day and it sucks.

Your feet hurt, your arms hurt.

You're tired, you're hungry.

Your feet hurt, your arms hurt.

You're crabby but like the little wins are what gets me through the day.

You're crabby but like the little wins We never thought that we could get into a co-op but I think like the next year we got on the shelf at The Wedge and that was a super big deal and after that it just kind of started scaling up.

This has just been our side hustle for the last four years and now we're taking a step back to really focus on it This has just been our side hustle for the last four years and make it something big.

We wanna be right up there with sriracha and ketchup.

To be the next kick-ass condiment.