Zainab Azizi, known for the entire Finland Baking program, is tired of racist comments.
Zainab Azizi rejoices after his dream come true: he has his own lunch café. The interviewee’s home album
Raised from the entire Finland Baking program Zainab azizi Today is running a Zanniskitchen lunch café in Turku. Opened on Mother’s Day, the café serves Finnish food with an ethnic twist.
Azizi dreamed of his own café for many years. Now the dream has come true.
Azizi became known for its entire Finland Baking program, which was shown on television in 2020.
– I wanted to break prejudice and show people that a person using a scarf is just ordinary.
Azizi finds it important to break prejudice as it says he has encountered racism in Finland. Aziz, who moved from Iraq to Finland in 1997, has been shouted both on the street and in the grocery store and told it to go where it has come from.
– It seems that with the current government, racism has increased quite exponentially. As if it had been accepted.
Even within his own café, a fresh entrepreneur has not avoided racist comments.
– Some customers have come to the café, asked what they were on the lunch list and, after hearing the answer, shaking that no food is. They have begun to advise that there is no such food in Finland or that no such spices are used in Finland. As if I were not part of Finland myself. I always try to lighten the atmosphere, but I wouldn’t always be able to.
Azizi says that a customer was nervous when no lunch food was available at that time.
– He started to claim that food here in Finland must be available and began to question whether I even had permission to be here. I replied that I could cook for him, and that the bureaucracy is fine, I could even open a café without permission. He then started to smile and said that the best I meant here.
Support from people helps to cope with
– For the whole 28 years, I have been silent inside me that racism would end at some point. I do not understand how the exterior, the skin color or the fact that there is a scarf on can make a person hate another person.
Azizi opened up about harassment he has experienced on social media, where the post has spread like wildfire. Aziz has rained comments in which people show their support. A fresh entrepreneur is grateful for the comments.
– It is of great importance. It makes me think that nasty encounters are individual cases, and I really have such a large group of me. All you have to do is go on. The comments make me feel that yes, I belong here, even though some try to keep it outside.
Dubais chocolate cake became a hit
Most of the customer encounters are positive. That too helps Aziz to cope. And not all Finns are foreign ethnic flavors. Zanniskitchen’s hit baking has quickly become a dubic chocolate cake that is purchased by children, young people and adults.
– There are also a lot of dates filled with dubic chocolate.
At lunch, Azizi has noticed Finns loving salmon. As for many other foods, Azizi usually slips spices that bring a particularly good taste.
– I want to show my food on both sides, both Finnish and ethnic background, because both are dear to me. I meet every customer in the heart. I want to create a taste experience, I think it’s wealth and love because food unites people.
Za’atar oven salmon
Za’atar is one of Zainab Aziz’s favorite spices. That is why he has developed his title spice from Za´tar, which he plans to bring in his online store for sale. Aziz’s recipe for oven salmon gets za’tar frosting Zainab azizi
1 salmon fillet (about 800 g)
2 tbsp za’atar spice mixture
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lime juice
1 teaspoon of salt
1. Measure the ingredients and mix in a paste.
2. Apply the whole mix on the salmon fillet.
3. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes. Decorate after baking with leaf parsley, dill, lime and chili meal if desired.