The Sambuxa NYC Story: Passion, Culture, and Culinary Innovation

Sharing the flavors of Sudan’s diverse cuisine and learning from others helped this vendor at NYC’s Queens Night Market thrive

by Citizens Staff

Food is a shared language that connects cultures, says chef Gladys Shahtou, founder of Sudanese food vendor and caterer Sambuxa NYC. Shahtou’s belief launched a food business that has attracted a large and diverse group of happy customers.

“Food brings people together,” says Shahtou. “Even if you’re not familiar with the cuisine, as soon as you start eating and talking, you learn so much about people.”

Sambuxa NYC is a popular fixture at Queens Night Market (QNM), an open-air, family-friendly market in Queens, New York. QNM showcases over 100 independent vendors each week to celebrate the cultural diversity of New York City and Queens.

Shahtou launched the business after a career in international relations to showcase the cuisine and the cultural richness of Sudan. She recently shared her business success story, the importance of creating something that matters to you personally, and how your competition can be your greatest resource.

Tip: Seek passion and market appeal.

Shahtou was born in Sudan and grew up in Zurich, Switzerland, but spent holidays and summers in New York City with family. She worked successfully in international relations in New York City after college but eventually decided to combine her love of cooking and pride in her heritage to open her own food business in 2018.

The concept for Sambuxa NYC was devised after she spent time visiting the city’s outdoor food markets to see what was popular. She found it surprising to see no representation of Sudanese food.

“I wanted to do something hands-on that belonged to me,” Shahtou says, “and I saw the business opportunity to fill a void in New York’s culinary scene.”

She also recognized that Sudanese food would resonate with a wide range of customers because it tastes unique but evokes familiarity. This combination of personal passion and the opportunity to sell something with broad appeal convinced Shahtou that she had found a distinct niche and a winning business idea.

Sambuxa NYC’s flagship item is the sambuxa, a bite-sized fried triangular pastry that typically contains beef, vegetables, or cheese. Its flavors — reminiscent of Ethiopian, Egyptian, and Middle Eastern cuisine — reveal the diversity of the region.

“It’s been such an amazing learning process to see the similarities in different cultures,” she says. “People from all over the world try our food and see something that reflects their own home.”

She also wanted her food to educate people about Sudan.

“All many people know about Sudan is what they hear on the news about civil war and famine,” she says. “But there’s so much more to tell. It has more pyramids than Egypt. It’s a melting pot of tribes from all over Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean.”

Bottom line: Identify a business opportunity that aligns with your interests or identity and has the potential to be compelling to others. Business passion will propel you forward, and identifying aspects of your product that compel others to buy will turn your passion into a viable offering.

Tip: Grow at your own pace.

In addition to her QNM work, Shahtou currently devotes a significant amount of her time and energy to catering — 80%, in her approximation. While catering was not part of her initial vision, it has helped her build the business and delegate more, which has been key to her growth. Shahtou has been outsourcing to a management company to book work throughout the New York metro area.

“I was initially hesitant to take on catering work because I know how time-consuming it is,” she says. “But now I have a bigger team, and I am actively training them to properly execute my recipes.”

Sambuxa has scaled slowly, which has enabled her to maintain adequate cash flow and build a strong foundation. To this point, she has primarily self-financed but did receive some grants and a small business loan during the pandemic. With a strong foundation in place, she is now ready for growth.

Her next phase will include continuing her Sudanese food business and scaling her efforts making Spitzbüebli, a Swiss Linzer cookie she sells both at Sambuxa and through several New York cafés. She made the most of downtime during the pandemic by perfecting her recipe as a side hustle, since she could make them at home with a home baker’s license while the food service industry was largely shut down. She’s planning to scale by partnering with a co-packer.

“I’d love to build this out,” she says. “That will require streamlining the process of making, packaging, and distributing the cookies.”

Bottom line: Grow at your own pace by scaling slowly enough that you can delegate to skilled staff and identify the financing and resources you need to scale. Line up financing ahead of when you need it to support the momentum you build, and network with your peers to find the partners you will need to accelerate growth when the time is right.

Tip: Connect with peers.

While some business owners may view others in their industry as competition, Shahtou has forged close connections with fellow New York area chefs and says they have contributed significantly to her success. For instance, Shahtou says QNM vendors share advice about how to manage staff, find new work, and build skills. She actively seeks out peers and has joined industry groups to make connections.

“It’s educational and really fun getting to meet and work with other chefs,” she says. “They are from Syria, Venezuela, Iran, and all over the world.”

Through her network, Shahtou was recently invited to host a Sudanese cooking class and dinner at Angelina Jolie’s Greenwich Village event space Atelier Jolie. “We had the chance to teach Ms. Jolie how to make sambuxas, which was fun, but it was really a great chance to raise the visibility of my business and meet new contacts who could help me grow.”

Some of her New York City restaurant network is from participating in Eat Offbeat, a collective of refugee and immigrant chefs. Eat Offbeat has a catering app in which chefs and restaurants can list their offerings and solicit personal and corporate catering orders.

Shahtou’s connections with industry groups has also helped her improve important business management skills. One example of this is a program at Hot Bread Kitchen, a nonprofit that offers career training, job placement, and educational support to food business entrepreneurs.

“They are the ones who really helped me learn how to keep track of my finances as a small business,” says Shahtou.

She will be able to continue building her skills and connections through access to a Luminary Fellowship membership provided by Citizens. Luminary supports entrepreneurship through education, networking opportunities, and mentorship.

She keeps in mind the role that other people in her industry have played and now looks for chances to help food business entrepreneurs. “I’m trying to pay it forward,” she says. “I connect other talented chefs so they can grow their catering businesses.”

Bottom line: Other people in your industry represent a resource, not a competitive threat, so build a strong network to learn from. Professional peers are a great source of advice to solve the industry-specific problems you face. Also, they can share valuable resources such as the organizations and partners you need to build a company.

By identifying a passion with a viable market, building slowly and developing close industry connections, Shahtou has scaled her business and moved steadily toward her goals. Her journey underscores how an openness to learning, planning ahead, and working with others can all create a recipe for success.

“All my experience has made me feel more confident,” says Shahtou. “But I’ll always keep learning, because that’s key to growth.”

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