[upbeat music] - Morning.

[kissing noises] - Okay?

[soft piano music] - Two election cycles ago, the environment for immigrants and refugees was not very supportive, and I wanted to find a way to make a difference and try to help fellow immigrants and refugees.

So, that's kind of how I started it, by doing volunteering, doing research looking into different areas in Binghampton, and I've found many women that were selling food as a side job trying to make a little bit of extra income.

And, that's how I decided that maybe there's a way for me to help them.

Even though I don't have any culinary background, I have a pretty strong business background, and my goal was never to be a restaurant owner.

It's just to help people.

So, I immigrated from Switzerland, one of the richest countries in the world, and I had money in a bank account, I spoke English, and my path was pretty difficult.

All the refugees, they don't choose to come here, they have to because of usually their political situation at home.

And they don't get to choose where they gonna go, and the minute your feet touch the soil of the foreign country they have six to eight months to be completely self-sufficient.

So, they have to find a job, and a job that doesn't require a language usually is a warehouse job.

That's when the cooking kinda started kicking in.

Those women would work a whole day at the warehouse and then they would cook food, because they cook for their family anyways, might as well do extra and try to sell it.

And, that's kinda how I got connected.

The crazy part is that you get your education in a foreign country it doesn't translate to the American system.

So, my first chef here had a degree in Psychology and Philosophy, and she was working in a warehouse.

It is such a catch-22 because you work in a warehouse all day, you have a second or third job, you don't have time to take English lessons.

It's really, really difficult, and that was the push for me towards opening Global Cafe, was to educate people and try to make a difference.

Somaya was the assistant chef to our initial Sudanese chef.

And when Itji left, she became the chef, and she decided to hire Hawa as her assistant, and Hawa is actually not from Sudan, she's from Somalia.

- From the start, Global Cafe.

From this day, I'll work here.

- We are neighbors.

She said let's go.

We are working together.

[chuckles] Teamwork.

She's good friend, good help, yeah.

[overlapping conversations] - Becky's amazing.

She's taken the challenge of taking what we have and making it her own.

The fact that she's from an immigrant family.

Her family's from Kenya, makes it even extra special for me to know that I have somebody that gets it.

Culturally we're all very different.

We have different ways of doing things.

You can put systems in place, but it's just not a regular kitchen.

We just function a little bit differently, and you have to have that sensibility, and she definitely has that.

- It printed for them, so that worked out.

My family moved to the US in the '90s.

And, we ended up in Memphis.

Growing up cooking was just always there.

It was how we all came together, how we all connected was over food.

So, food has just always been such an integral part of my life.

I didn't think about it until I kinda stumbled into the restaurant industry and was like, "You know, this is pretty cool."

And being in Global Cafe, being able to really enjoy my roots, and then learn about other people's cultures and cuisines has been a really, really great experience.

- Chicken, there you go.

- Thank you.

- You enjoy.

- It's fun for us to interact with customers and learn about their stories.

And, that was part of the mission of Global Cafe, was to share our culture with people that will probably will never go to Switzerland, or Somalia, or to Sudan, or to Venezuela, or Mexico.

But, I also think that people that are afraid of immigrants, that are afraid of refugees, I think that when they step through the doors, they quickly realize what we're about.

And, it gives them a perspective that they wouldn't have.

[soft piano music] - I think a lot of the people that come into Global Cafe are just excited and interested to try something new.

And, eating can be a fun and exciting experience.

And, when you meet people who are of different backgrounds and different cultures, it allows you to see other people and be more familiar with it, especially 'cause these women, this is-- We say it's their love language.

They love to feed people and cook and sharing community with people.

- I think we're all super happy to have each other, but Memphis as a whole is really, really welcoming.

And, there's a lot of wonderful immigrants and refugee communities.

And, Memphians in general have really, we just see how much business we do like-- And not always people you would expect.

And, that's just the beauty of it.

[soft piano music]