Ethiopian Enterpreneur Introduces Ethiopian Cuisine to Turkey

Ethiopian entrepreneur Khedija Ali has found success in Turkey through her eatery, where she shares the flavors of the Horn of Africa while employing other immigrant women. Khedija, 35, moved to Ankara in 2018 and opened the Blue Nile, the city’s first and only Ethiopian restaurant, serving traditional cuisine with spices and condiments such as Injera, Ethiopian sour flatbread. “My late husband was of Turkish origin. Ethiopia is where we met and married” she said. Despite the impact of COVID-19 on her business and other obstacles she has faced, Khedija has never considered returning home. Instead, she is determined to work hard and make her dream a reality by opening more branches of her eatery in Turkey. The restaurant, located in the heart of Ankara, serves not just Ethiopian cuisine but also Ethio-Turkish, Somali, Djibouti, Sudanese, and Eritrean dishes, which have many cultural similarities.
“I am the only one who bakes Ethiopian sour flatbread in Turkey. And I plan to export it to Europe,” Khedija said. “I have dedicated my life, and will not stop until I realize my dream of having an international standard restaurant serving East African cuisine,” she said. Khedija also underlined that she mostly works 16 hours a day to maintain the restaurant up to standard. She said she is reshaping it as a family business, with help from her younger brother and sister. “I and my brother cook together here. We both took hotel management courses, worked at 5-star hotels in Ethiopia, and owned a restaurant there,” she said. Many Ethiopians in the city admired her kindness in supporting others who have been financially impacted by the pandemic. “She was giving her restaurant stocks to those who run out of food and money during the pandemic,” said Mahir Mohammed, a student in Ankara who worked with Khedija during the pandemic. “When we even have personal problems, such as money needs, she lends us some even if she is not much wealthy than us, or if we want to seek a job, she tries to reach out to her connections and find a job for us,” Samrawit, one of the Ethiopian residents in Ankara, told Anadolu Agency. “Her restaurant is like a second home to us,” she added.