Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Elisabeth Varondi. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Elisabeth, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I grew up believing that everything you do with love has a positive impact on generations to come.

Mandazi is that special treat that will always remind me of the best memories of my childhood
After my grandmother passed, I realized that I inherited the best treasure which is Mandazi’s recipe, We would all sit around her while she worked her magic with the dough, anticipating the moment when she would begin frying her dough, and ah, that wonderful aroma would fill the air with its promise of the most wonderful Beignets we could imagine.

My name is Elisabeth I am the founder and head baker of Yatab Mandazi, I grew up making Beignets with my grandma, unfortunately, she did not have a written recipe, but after grand mom pass it took Me a five-year journey to recover my grandmother’s wonderful recipes.
Mandazi is a truly great delicacy, each little square is made by hand, the process is the same as a regular beignet except it is more dense and chewy.
For a country where women use beignet as a way to feed children and pay school fees, this is our way to honor all the beautiful strong women.
Beignets for us are like family, it is a result of the combination of love and passion, which we take care of every day; making our beignets one of the eldest favorites great again.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Mandazi is an African Beignet, made with a few simple ingredients, creating such deliciousness, slightly crunchy outside and chewy on the inside. Each beignet is made with love creating a love story of its own

I am the Founder and owner of Yatab Mandazi. I make African Beignets which we call Mandazi in Swahili. Mandazi is made with natural ingredients, sweet bite-size slightly crunchy on the outside, and chewy on the inside. we thrive to offer the best ingredient in each beignet with you in mind.
Mandazi has a unique taste that sets us apart, this delicious African beignet comes from my grandma’s recipe, originated from D.R. Congo_ represents a  nice way to introduce you to the taste of Africa

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

We started the business in February 2020, In March 2020, we introduced Mandazi to the world by selling them in the Mckinney Farmers Market, then the pandemic started, unquestionably, this has been a difficult moment many of us have faced., but we definitely decided to continue taking our mandazi to different farmers markets, to be able to expose our product to different peoples. now we are in Central market and soon will be on the shelf in HEB

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Most of my audience on social media are my customers, they try my product fall in love, and become part of our family.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.yatabmandazi.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yatabmandazi/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YatabMandazi