Latifa Smaili

Latifa was born in Oran, a port city in Algeria. Although her mother taught her kitchen basics while Latifa was growing up and in college, she didn’t embrace cooking, even after marrying and moving to Damascus. The war forced her and her husband to return to Algeria, where Latifa started working as an engineer at a biochemistry laboratory. They couldn’t both get resident permits — her husband is Palestinian — so they moved to Turkey, where they were able to live together. Unfortunately, faced with health problems, Latifa could no longer work as an engineer. This was a difficult time for Latifa, who now stayed at home and didn’t work. A friend suggested that she join a cooking group on Facebook, which proved fortuitous — Latifa tapped into what she’d learned from her mother, made the recipes she saw, posted her results, and became part of a community. She then decided to start her own cooking-focused Facebook page and gained followers who enjoyed her creative ways with food. Latifa next plans to open a shop where she can sell French and Algerian sweets made with less sugar and fewer processed ingredients.