SYRIAN REFUGEE TO CHEESEMAKER VIA YORKSHIRE

Razan and her husband Raghid

COVER STORY

Make cheese grate again

Orla McIlduff speaks to Razan Alsous, a former Syrian refugee and owner of Yorkshire Dama Cheese who knows that quality ingredients really matter when it comes to the tastiest products

I’m going to try really hard not to make it cheesy, let it brie and stay away from the plethora of cheesy puns I gouda go straight to. Now that’s out of my system, I can actually just share this inspiring story about one lady’s unexpected journey into cheesemaking.

Like many of us here in the UK, Razan Alsous knew she wanted to go to university when she left school, so she studied pharmacology in her hometown of Damascus, Syria. But unlike most of us, her world was soon turned upside down by war, destroying the life she had planned. Razan and her family fled to Yorkshire in England in 2012. a challenge, as they came from Syria with nothing: “It wasn’t an easy thing because when I was in Syria, I lived in Damascus. If you don’t know Damascus, it’s the capital of Syria and it’s got lots of high-rise buildings. I hadn’t seen many animals before in my life and I saw more cows here than I’d ever seen, it was very interesting, very relaxing.”

After getting a family home established in Huddersfield, Razan began searching for a job, but despite her scientific background, her lack of references and work history in the UK made it extremely difficult. Not one to wallow, she knew she had her three children to think of, so began to plan, considering her own expertise and opportunities available to her.

“When something in your life changes so much, you really need to accept that reality. I began to think: ‘What next? What are you planning for the future? How can we recover from our loss?’ So that’s when the idea of the business came through.”

Quality British milk Razan was in awe of the quality of milk British farmers produce but was constantly disappointed by not being able to find tasty ‘squeaky cheese’ like she ate at home in Syria for breakfast. The closest she could find was Cypriot halloumi, but found it wasn’t a patch on what she remembered eating at home in the springtime, when the rainfall at that time of year in Syria resulted in better quality milk.

“I spotted a gap in the market,” Razan explains. “The rainfall here means British milk is amazing. Halloumi is usually or traditionally made from goat and sheep’s milk because of the desert geography so they made halloumi using their own local resources. And in Yorkshire we’ve got more cow’s milk so I started to work out what the difference was. I found that the melting point and the protein and fat percentage is affecting different types, like different levels will affect it.”

Doing experiments to recreate the Syrian cheese she remembered from her kitchen in Huddersfield, Razan was delighted with the results: “The taste is amazing, wonderful even! We found it's absolutely different from the commercial halloumi found in supermarkets. Usually they make it from powdered milk; why do I need to use powdered milk while the

quality fresh milk is available?”

And so Razan and her husband Raghid embarked on their journey with a startup loan of just £2,500 from the Local Enterprise Agency and got the approval to start manufacturing cheese in June 2014. After just four months of production, they had won a World Cheese Award Bronze Prize 2014/15.

Trademark issues and opportunities As many who produce food will know, branding is key. However, Yorkshire Dama cheese came up against a bit of a roadblock when they tried to market their cheese as halloumi.

Halloumi is a protected designation of origin (PDO), meaning anything labelled as halloumi must be produced on the island of Cyprus or in Cypriot/Turkish communities. This has caused issues for Razan and Raghid, mainly because people in the UK know what halloumi is, and it would be easier to market as such. However, Razan has found a silver lining: “What I’ve done is switched the name to ‘Squeaky Cheese’ as the character of the halloumi is squeaky and it has worked well to avoid the competition actually.

“Our target is to make a life and a living. We just want to make our product sell and to make a future for our children. So we decided just to take the competition out of the picture and work more creatively. We’ve developed around eight flavours of the squeaky cheese, while everything else on the market is either plain or chilli.”

Sourcing local It’s unsurprising that sourcing the right milk is really important to Razan, and she takes the ‘buy local’ message to an almost extreme level by purchasing milk from a farm just a mile away from their home. And the expansion opportunities keep coming: “Recently, during the pandemic actually, we’ve heard about two farms, one producing sheep’s milk and one producing goat’s milk. They were suffering from the pandemic, so we decided just to launch new products, one which is 100% sheep’s milk squeaky cheese, and another that is 100% goat milk squeaky cheese.

“In addition to this we are making sheep’s milk and cows’ milk yogurt called labneh from a traditional recipe and it is spreadable.” Yorkshire Dama also makes butter, butter ghee and their take on squeaky cheese fries – ‘hello-mi’ fries.

“Our target is to make a life and a living. We just want to make our product sell and make a future for our children.”

The English farming community Razan and Raghid’s three children (Yara, Angie and Kareem) are a big factor in their parents’ achievements: “They’re very interested and proud of the journey we have passed through. They are very confident and they help us sometimes; it’s a very nice family feeling.”

She says she’s felt very welcome in the English farming community from the start, explaining: “People think that it is a closed industry, but it’s not. Maybe because people are living in nature, they’ve got very nice manners. It’s a friendly atmosphere. Honestly, I’ve never been in a situation where people didn’t accept me.

“Oppositely, I have had lots of good comments where people say ‘you are welcome in Yorkshire’. Good farmers are clever people and they want the best. They’ve got really good time management and managing skills. So when you are in business, then you know that dealing with each other will be beneficial for both of us. Honestly, I didn’t find any difficulties in being accepted.”

She has, however, had people questioning her: “They ask: ‘What are you doing here?’, especially when I am in any cheese competition. But I am different and relate it to human curiosity. People have the right to ask. And when I tell them ‘this is my story, this is what I’m doing’, they appreciate it.”

I think there’s very few who wouldn’t appreciate what Razan and Yorkshire Dama cheese are doing. She’s flying the flag for Syria, for women, for entrepreneurs and for British produce. What a star.