Let’s face it, we eat differently. Differently than we did in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s for sure.
Hummus was never on my Grade 6 spelling list. We were so unprepared for the future. Words like casserole and meatloaf (not Michael Lee Aday’s 1977 “Bat Out of Hell” version) or Jell-O populated our television screens, and therefore our plates, too.
Then along came Chicken à la King, Chicken Kiev, Beef Bourguignon, and Crème Brulee, and soon we had appetizers, mains, savouries and sweets. How adventurous we all seemed with meatballs using grape jelly, stuffed crescent rolls (A.K.A "Pigs in a Blanket") and fondue.
Hello canapé, hors d'oeuvre, amuse-gueule, “Nouvelle“ and good-bye Lipton Onion Soup Dip and wobbly desserts and salads encased in gelatin.
We woke up to global food, pan-Asian dishes, tapas and spices like iron-red sumac (in Arabic سماق ). We went from salt and pepper to spice drawers, racks and cupboards overfilled with curries, caraway and cumin.
Ah, what is Canadian cuisine?
Can you recall the first time you tasted hummus? Well, Deke Zaher can’t either, but for him the love affair with this flavourful mélange based on chickpeas has been a lifetime; and now is a passion project. Not everybody wants to stake their future on making Palestinian foodstuffs. Turns out he was a visionary. “I was the kid with the weird lunches,” laughed Zaher. “I did a show-and-tell back in 1984 — I was six — just to talk about our traditions.”
At 37 and then a life skills counselor in the school system, Zaher had his-now-or-never moment: it was time to take his entrepreneurial energy and harness it into a core business theme. Thus, Zaher's Small Batch was born. Now 42, he leapt into a retail location having established a loyal and expanding following.
“One year, downtown Sudbury, here at Christ the King Centre at the corner of Elgin and Beech. I wasn’t expecting to find such a perfect location for launching. This is a workshop where we create Zaher’s Small Batch Hummus,” he paused. “We opened seven months before the pandemic, imagine that.”
His two aunts and even his father’s recipe influences what we now can pick up at Smith’s Markets and at so many other outlets.
“The brand is me and I am the brand!”
Just try to stop scooping the Baba Mia, the new No. 13, or spicy Screaming Dill Pickle hummus. That last one has unique piquant zesty addictiveness.
“Affordable, healthy and easily to-go hummus is a nutritious snack, not a junk food. I get to create every day.”
Zaher is adamant that delivery on the day of manufacture and staying away from preservatives is the only way to go.
“Vegan, made fresh, and locally made, that’s my motto. Full transparency means I tell you all the ingredients. Whole foods, that’s the way I was raised and for some reason we forgot how important it is. We got sidetracked by big agri-food commercialism and marketing machines in the ’80s and ’90s.”
Start your hummus journey with plain and simple; and then go wild.
“Just like when you listen to a heavy metal band and you still hear each instrument, I just increase the dimensions of the flavoured hummus to the point where you still taste each note. This one you get to enjoy for eight seconds before it begins to spark and flare.”
Oh yah! Zip, zowie, zing! Red curry and ghost peppers make my last sampling the most haunting and unforgettable.
Zaher’s Small Batch is growing from its success.
“It wasn’t a fairy tale to get here. On anything we do we want to earn the five stars!” Zaher said.
Be ready to watch what Deke Zaher does next.
Bet you H-U-M-M-U-S is in today’s spelling bees.
Zaher's Small Batch
12 Elgin Street
705-923-9366
Hugh Kruzel is a committed foodie and a freelance writer in Greater Sudbury.
