Our Exclusive Interview With Mai Ziadeh & Aya Aloul of Mai’s Kitchen

Founded by Mai Ziadeh & Aya Aloul, Mai Kitchen is home-cooked meals that aim to make your lives easier. A taste of mama’s food straight from the freezer to your table.​

When did your passion for cooking begin?

We have a deep love for cooking and exploring different flavors and cuisines. When we got married, we would follow recipes from cookbooks by trying to recreate the dishes as best we could. Soon, we started experimenting with them and realized that our special touch helped elevate the given recipes to better suit our family’s palate. That’s when we realized we had a great opportunity to build on.  

Do you have a culinary background? 

 We’re both self-taught. Our immense passion for cooking, plus the years of putting our culinary skills into practice and experimenting with recipes. Our innate ability to enhance dishes by adding our special ingredients to them helped us establish a strong cooking background. Giving us the foundation to create our business.

What inspired you to start a frozen food business?

As mothers, we love to cook healthy, wholesome home-cooked meals that are part of our day-to-day life and can be enjoyed together, around the table. However, we realized that the new generation and young moms struggle with that as they are constantly on the go, which is why we decided to make home-cooked meals easier and faster instead of relying on ordering food from outside. To us, home is where the food is.

What types of cuisine do you cook?

We cover a variety of cuisines from traditional Middle Eastern, to Italian, Indian, and much more.

What is your signature dish?

All of our dishes are special in their own way. That said, our Chicken Curry is a must-try!

Do you have weekly or daily specials?

We will keep adding dishes as we grow so people can always find new items to offer to their families.

What is the ordering process?

For the time being, our customers can place orders via our social media channels – Instagram, Facebook & WhatsApp. All they have to do is message us and list their order and address, and we will deliver it.

We are also in the process of developing our website to give our customers another platform to place their orders on.

Does freezing food affect taste?

Not at all! Our frozen dishes taste as fresh and delicious as possible! Our freezing process does not affect the taste or texture, and the quality of the food is always top-notch.  

What is your favorite meal?

Waraq Ennab and Koosa, and Chicken Curry!

What foods should not be frozen?

Leafy greens, as they lose their freshness and texture.

How long will a frozen meal stay safe to eat?

That would depend on the dish and the ingredients that go into it because our meals are 100% natural with no added preservatives.

How can one maintain the quality of your frozen meals?

Frozen food does come with certain guidelines to help people take care of it. For example, you cannot defrost something and freeze it again, as this will compromise the quality of the food. Some of our frozen dishes need to be fried as soon they are taken out of the freezer, while other items require time to defrost.

What ingredients are Mai’s Kitchens must haves?

We have our own special spice mix for each dish, which makes all the difference!

What cookbook would you recommend? 

“Palestine on a Plate: Memories from My Mother’s Kitchen” has amazing recipes.

Would you want to see Mai’s Kitchen meals sold in supermarkets?

Of course, it’s part of our business plan and will be implemented soon – stay tuned 😊