Hawa Hassan
Entrepreneur & Cookbook author
Hawa Hassan was born in a time of war in Somalia and at the age of four moved with her family to a U.N. refugee camp. In that difficult environment, her mother worked miracles to keep her five children safe, fed and educated. Eventually Hawa's mother was able to make her way to an apartment in Nairobi, Kenya, and three years after that, she made the painful decision to send Hawa to Seattle to live with a family friend.
It would be 15 years before Hawa saw her family again. She is the founder and CEO of Basbaas Sauce, a line of condiments inspired by her country of origin, Somalia. Hawa and her brand have been featured in Forbes, the New York Times, the Observer, Grub Street, Vogue, The Cut, Eater, and more.
Hassan wrote In Bibi's Kitchen with Julia Turshen, the bestselling author of Now and Again and Feed the Resistance. She has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and Saveur. She is the founder of Equity At The Table (EATT), an inclusive digital directory of women and non-binary individuals in food.
