Q & A with The Hummus Club

Website: http://thehummusclub.com/

The Hummus Club is a well-known small business that started as a market stall, established by Kaitlin and Ziad. They have a huge passion for food and their goal is to showcase Middle Eastern food to the people of Perth. With all the well-deserved success that they’ve received, I’m so excited that they’ll be opening the first Hummus Eatery in Perth as a pop-up store in Trinity Arcade on the 14th October.

I had the pleasure of meeting Kaitlin and Ziad for an interview to ask them about their new Hummus Eatery and their journey as a growing small business in Perth.

  1. From your website it says that your inspiration to start The Hummus Club was to share Middle Eastern Food with others and also because you grew up eating it. What are some of your favorite Middle Eastern dishes from your childhood?

Our mission from the very beginning was to expose more people to the food that we love and revolutionise the way people saw and experienced Mid eastern cuisine. Whenever we would talk about the food we loved, most of our friends had no idea what we were even talking about as they had never tried the food before. 

We wanted to take our fave foods to the streets of Perth so more people could eat and get to experience good quality mid eastern cuisine. Bringing modern mid eastern cuisine to the foodies of Perth in an inviting atmosphere, accessible to everyone- that’s our goal.

Ziad spent much of his childhood in Lebanon and living and breathing the culture- including its amazing food. When Ziad moved to Australia- Ziad’s parents opened a little Lebanese eatery in Vic Park.

Our favourite dishes? There’s so many, but if we had to narrow it down to three, Ziad’s faves are hummus, falafel and kofta. Kaitlin’s faves are kibbe, baba ghanoush and falafel.

 2.  Will these dishes be featured in the pop-up shop? Also what is likely to be on the menu for the pop-up shop?

The Hummus Eatery is all about celebrating hummus and how, in the Middle East, it can be eaten as a meal rather than just a side dish or dip. Hummus is a part of every meal time (from breakfast to dinner and in between) and it is in fact a very filling and substantial meal in itself.

The Hummus Eatery will showcase our freshly made traditional style hummus with modern mid eastern inspired toppings. All of our hummus plates will be served with fresh bread. We will also have a small selection of other ‘Mid eastern faves’ such as kibbe, mid eastern salad and our popular falafel sandwich aka the FLT. We will also have our pomegranate lemonade and a rotating selection of mid eastern sweets.

    

 3. After tasting your Club Mix and FLT at your market stall, I could definitely tell the food was made with very fresh ingredients. How to do you maintain the high quality of food? 


We always wanted to produce high quality, delicious and well presented food- it’s part of our company’s values. So when it came to choosing ingredients for our products we did a lot of research on sourcing the best tasting and freshest ingredients. We use locally grown produce where we can and that includes our locally sourced fruit and veggies, chickpeas and meats. We cook fresh falafel every day and our hummus is produced every two to three days as we don’t put any preservatives in it.

 4. I love how you went from being a small market stall, and have received so much success due to your passion for food. What have been your best experiences while growing your business in the Perth foodie scene? 


We have been very fortunate to have so many loyal and supportive hummus lovers here in Perth. We have lots of customers that have been around from the very beginning and come to our stalls every week. 

When you launch a business you never quite know how many people you will actually get to feed or how many people will actually like your food! We are passionate about food and we love to see other people enjoying the food as much as we do and this is definitely one of the best experiences that we have had whilst growing The Hummus Club. 

Other great experiences have been meeting all the other food vendors, many of whom have become great friends. Also, just being a part of the awesome events and food scene here in Perth.

Perth has an amazing food scene and it is just getting bigger and better and to be a part of it and getting the chance to showcase Mid Eastern cuisine, is something we are really proud of and something we enjoy every single day. It is a lot of work, but it is all worthwhile when you see people enjoying and getting excited about your food.

 5. I’m sure the pop-up store will be a success! Will there be a possibility of opening a permanent restaurant in the near future? 


For sure. Watch this space!

  6. Where would you recommend travelling to (in the Middle East) for great food? 


Lebanon, Morocco, Jordan, Turkey are all great starting points. You’ll find a lot of similar dishes in all these regions all with slightly different versions depending on the country you are in. The food scene and street food scene in Beirut has really taken off recently and there are so many awesome events that happen each week. We can’t wait to go back there soon and get some more inspiration.

I encourage you all to try out the food when their pop-up store opens. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed! Seeing as my parents were once small business owners, I love supporting other small businesses and watching them grow. A special thanks goes to Kaitlin and Ziad, they’re such lovely people and I wish them all the best with their Hummus journey! #HummusRevolution