Seattle Culinary Academy’s “Samosa Girl” brings sustainable Indian street food to Capitol Hill
In the spring, when the Seattle Culinary Academy’s (SCA) kitchens took a break for the weekend, one former student worked overtime to bring her culinary creations to the masses. In May, recent graduate Adila Esbhani started a business called “Samosa Girl” to sell her tasty and sustainable take on a popular Indian street food to patrons at the Broadway Farmer’s Market, held on campus each Sunday.
Adila drew inspiration from her mother’s samosa recipe but tweaked it to incorporate skills and techniques she has learned in her professional training. She now makes her samosas, which are comprised of a savory potato-based filling in a fried pastry dough, in strict adherence to the sustainable practices she has learned at SCA. To accomplish this, she sources her ingredients from organic, non-genetically modified and local sources as much as possible.
She was encouraged to start her business when one of her instructors asked her to create 36 of her signature samosas for a student lunch at the academy. Since ten was the most she had ever made at once, Adila initially thought the task was insurmountable. The lunch went off without a hitch and it made her believe that creating the time-consuming pastry in bulk was possible. Now, she whips up more than 100 samosas each Sunday and has sold out every week. She also credits her husband, Asif, who helps her create hundreds of the complex pastries in an assembly-line process.
“The instructors here let you explore and push you to follow your passions,” Adila said. “They teach you foundational cooking skills but they’re also great at teaching you how those skills you learn can be applied anywhere.”
Visit the “Samosa Girl” stand at the Broadway Farmer’s Market outside of Seattle Central College every Sunday this summer from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.