Passport Pantry – I quit a well-paying job, ending a 15-year corporate career and dive fully into the messy, expensive, complicated, nerve-wracking, and surprisingly wonderful community of food startups to create a food brand with my life and business partner, Zahra. Was this move naive, courageous, interesting, or foolish? Probably all of the above.
Travel and movement have been irreplaceable parts of my life ever since I was a child. From being born in India, living in Iraq, growing up and studying in Canada, getting engaged in Greece, and voluntarily risking life and limb for adventures in Nepal, Argentina, Chile, France (and more), travel has been a constant companion and grounding force. It helps that travel is intrinsically linked to life-changing experiences with people of different cultures, and sharing delicious, real, healthy, and comforting food can make even the most prickly characters transform into warm, affectionate teddy bears.
So, naturally, when Zahra went gluten free for health reasons, we both began to scan our favourite pantry category’s (granola) product labels for clean, gluten-free ingredients and for flavours from our travels. Since we live in one of the most diverse cities in the world (Toronto), this should be easy, we thought. Wrong. It was packed full of refined sugars and over-processed, low-quality ingredients. Weird oils. Not enough fibre or healthy fats (even more important for us as South Asians #iykyk). Boring flavours that hadn’t changed in 15 years.
Owned In: Ontario
Made In Scarborough, ON:
Granola Clusters- Chocolate Hazelnut
- Egyptian Dukkah Spice
- Gunpowder Masala
- Mango Ginger Cardamom
- Sichuan Chili Maple
- Tahini Rose Pistachio
