Muyassar Hamdan

Muyassar’s family is from Palestine, but she was born in and grew up in Jordan. Even from a young age, she loved to cook and seemed destined to start a food business of her own. She learned how to cook from her mother, while also testing and tweaking her own recipes until she was happy with the results. In 1990, Muyassar moved to Saudi Arabia and started a catering business that specialized in mansaf, a Jordanian specialty of lamb cooked in yogurt. But Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure was not accommodating for Muyassar’s husband, who uses a wheelchair, so about two years ago Muyassar and her husband left everything to relocate to Istanbul, where he is able to get around more easily. Muyassar restarted her catering company from scratch and now focuses on what are called eastern sweets (as opposed to Western-style cakes and pastries) — she’s known for her mamul, date-filled cookies that are commonly eaten during Eid al-Fitr and Eid al Adha.