Cuzena 🐫

As we come to the end of The Cuzena Chapters it’s important to know just what is next and how we finally feel like Cuzena again.... We’re calling it a refresh. But really… it’s a claw back. This chapter is about what happens when you let corporate safety dull cultural truth. When your voice gets “cleaned up”, your mascot gets questioned, and suddenly you’re the one who “doesn’t get it.” We bent. We compromised. And for a moment, we lost ourselves. That was the wake up call. Chapter 5 is about taking our identity back, loudly. Bringing The Sultan home. Front and centre. (see it in all its glory very, very soon!) Not a beast of burden, but a symbol of pride, heritage, and lived experience. This isn’t a reinvention. It’s a homecoming. Back to our roots. Back to saying it with our chest. We are Cuzena. We’re opening the doors and inviting you to walk this road with us, the doubts, the fire, the breakthroughs, the belief it takes to keep going when quitting would be easier. Behind The Feast is our journey in real time. Not just what we’re making, but who we’re becoming. Building, questioning, cooking, dreaming, sometimes lost, always moving. We don’t know exactly where this ends. But now you know where we’ve come from. This is defiance. This is manifestation. This is an underdog with something to prove, sharing the magic of the Middle East and carving Cuzena onto the map, no matter what. No polish. No filters. Just truth, grit, and heart. Come sit with us. Be part of the story. Marhaba. #cuzena #TheCuzenaChapters #rebrand #GoingBackToOurRoots

Your vision is yours alone. But bringing it into reality? That takes action, belief, and the stomach to push through doubt. Manifesting, for Shadia, was never about wishful thinking. It’s in her DNA. See it clearly. Commit loudly. Move anyway. That belief runs through Cuzena, into our products, our standards, and our refusal to be anything but the best. Building a global brand takes a team. But only believers make it work. If you don’t understand protecting quality, or carrying the weight of the vision, it’s a hard game to play. Because dreams don’t manifest themselves. They’re built, together, by people who believe enough to make them real. #Cuzena #FeastLikeTheMiddleEast

Cuzena’s first-ever expo for Ful Madamous was pure family power. everyone pitching in, carrying boxes, serving samples, turning a tiny stand into something that felt bigger than it was. A Bazaar in the middle of a conference hall!⁠ ⁠ But behind the excitement came the tougher truth: Shadia couldn’t afford her office space anymore. The bills hit hard, and she had to move back to the home office (kitchen table) to keep going. It wasn’t the plan, but it was the only way forward, and she knew she was close! ⁠ ⁠ Then came Joe. Fresh out of uni, fearless, and instantly aligned with the vision. Together, they gave life and branding to Ful. Her sisters later rejoined the journey, learning production, scaling, and numbers on the fly, and momentum started to build: Selfridges, Booths, Whole Foods, independents.⁠ ⁠ And then Covid hit. No sampling meant no growth, and the pivot became unavoidable. Shadia realised how little true Middle Eastern representation existed on shelves. Just imitation packaging without real heritage behind it. That’s when the mission sharpened.⁠ ⁠ While the world baked banana bread, Cuzena rebuilt. Ful was shelved, Chip & Dips was born.⁠ ⁠ And this chapter?⁠ It’s only getting started.⁠ ⁠ #Cuzena #FeastLikeTheMiddleEast

There’s a point in every journey where the universe basically taps you on the shoulder and says,⁠ “Alright… your turn.”⁠ ⁠ For Shadia, that moment came when family members who had been building the dream alongside her had to step back. life, work, stability… all the real things that matter. And suddenly, the question wasn’t, “Who’s available?”⁠ ⁠ It was, “Who’s willing?”⁠ ⁠ That’s when it became Shadia’s moment to step forward.⁠ Not because everything was perfectly planned.⁠ Not because she felt ready.⁠ But because if she didn’t commit now, fully, fiercely, heart-first. She’d never know if this dream could actually become something real.⁠ ⁠ So she chose to go all in.⁠ No safety net.⁠ No promises.⁠ Just a gut feeling, a recipe she loved, and a fire in her chest that said,⁠ ⁠ “If I fail, at least it’s my failure. And if I thrive… It’s because I backed myself.”⁠ ⁠ Chapter 3 is that leap.⁠ ⁠ The messy, brave, very human decision to bet on a Middle Eastern food brand that didn’t exist yet… except in her own kitchen.⁠ ⁠ And this is where the real story begins.⁠ ⁠ #Cuzena #FeastLikeTheMiddleEast

Chapter 2: Cut From a Different Cloth — Part 2⁠ ⁠ Part 2 brings the fun — Shadia opening her boutique, finding her rhythm, and discovering she had a real talent for business.⁠ It was joyful, chaotic, and exciting. The kind of chapter that makes you smile looking back.⁠ ⁠ Then came Primark, and with it, the end of the boutique.⁠ A tough moment, but not a defining one.⁠ ⁠ Because from that pivot came a whole new lane.⁠ Shadia became the queen of threading (this came from the Middle East btw!), known for her skill, her warmth, and her hustle.⁠ ⁠ This chapter is full of reinvention:⁠ the kind of glow-up that eventually led to Cuzena.⁠ ⁠ #cuzena #FeastLikeTheMiddleEast #TheCuzenaChapters

Chapter 2: Cut From a Different Cloth — Part 1⁠ ⁠ Before Cuzena existed, there was Shadia: navigating life’s twists with resilience, curiosity, and a sense of being just a little different from everyone around her.⁠ ⁠ This chapter dives into those early years: the moments that built her confidence, the ones that shook it, and the unexpected changes that quietly set the stage for something bigger.⁠ ⁠ Every part of her journey left threads that would later weave into Cuzena — even the moments she thought had nothing to do with food or business at all.⁠ ⁠ Here’s the first half of her story, told the way it deserves to be told: honestly, gently, and through the memories that shaped her path.⁠ ⁠ Part 2 is coming soon… and it’s where the story really comes alive.⁠ ⁠ #cuzena #FeastLikeTheMiddleEast #TheCuzenaChapters

Before hashtags. Before “sharing culture” was cool.⁠ There was this, one big plate, many hands, endless love.⁠ ⁠ 1970s Britain. A Middle Eastern family finding home where it didn’t yet exist.⁠ ⁠ The table may have sometimes been a floor but that was the bridge, between languages and between worlds. ⁠ ⁠ Every bite told a story of where we came from, and who we refused to stop being, whilst still incorporating new culture.⁠ ⁠ This is what sharing really meant, not a trend, but a survival instinct.⁠ ⁠ A way to stay connected, even when everything around you said blend in.⁠ ⁠ Heritage wasn’t on a menu back then. It was in the hands that tore bread from the same plate.⁠ ⁠ #cuzena #sharethemagic #heritage

Every brand begins with a story.⁠ ⁠ Ours started with a founder, Shadia Al Hili, in a small kitchen, somewhere between chaos and curiosity.⁠ ⁠ There was no roadmap, no marketing plan, no investors waiting on the sidelines. Just a recipe that carried generations of flavour and a stubborn belief that the world deserved to taste it.⁠ ⁠ Cuzena was never meant to be a polished brand. It was a work in progress from day one, a journey that smelled like roasted cumin and sounded like long nights and big dreams.⁠ ⁠ What follows is our record of that journey - the wins, the mess, and the unfiltered truth of building something from the ground up.⁠ ⁠ These are our chapters, the story of how a little Middle Eastern spark grew into something far greater than we ever imagined.⁠ ⁠ We are Cuzena.⁠ ⁠ We’re going back to 2012 - although rather serendipitously, Fozia jokes about it being 2025 in the throwback clip. A strange slip, thirteen years ahead. All we can say is, everything is written 🤲 ⁠ ⁠ If you know, you know. ✨⁠ ⁠ “Big love to @jakekarls_ , @thatsalt , @lezliekarls , and @middaysquares hearing Jake talk about sharing the journey hit deep. It was the catalyst for me finding a way to tell this story honestly, and it’s been a game-changer. Cuzena wasn’t born yesterday, and the story’s only just getting started. Big respect to my all-time favourite Mid-Day Squares crew, meet you at the top!” ✨- Shadia x⁠ ⁠ #cuzena #ourstory #ShareTheMagicOfTheMiddleEast #WeAreCuzena 🐪

This one’s straight from the Middle East,⁠ But we’ve turned the volume way up.⁠ Arayes, spiced meat, toasted bread, and memories reborn.⁠ Finished with our Harissa & Lemon sauce, bold, fiery, unapologetically Cuzena.⁠ ⁠ Because heritage should never taste dusty.⁠ ⁠ 🔥 Pick up a bottle of Harissa & Lemon from your local @coopuk store and #FeastLikeTheMiddleEast ⁠ Click the link in our bio to find your nearest stockists. ⁠ #cuzena #sharethemagic