In the family

Baton Rouge is known for its Greek and Lebanese culture—evident in plenty of popular restaurants, but now in locally made products, too.

Kathy Broha is creating hummus from her mother’s original recipe and packaging it as Ruth’s Hummus, the first in a line from her company Ruth’s Recipes.

Unlike bigger brand names, this hummus has no additives. It’s made from five simple ingredients—a classic recipe Broha’s Lebanese ancestors have been making for a century.

“It’s what my parents grew up with in America, and what my grandparents had in the old country,” Broha says. However, it did take some coaxing to get the recipe from Broha’s 84-year-old mother, Ruth.

Ruth’s Hummus was created through LSU AgCenter’s food incubator and is now available at Calvin’s Bocage Market, Calandro’s on Perkins Road and A-Z International Food Stores. Find out more at about them at ruthsrecipes.net.

Another local product, Villa Cyprus, has ties to the cuisine of the island nation of Cyprus. The first time Michael O’Neill met his wife Lena’s family in Cyprus around summer 2007, he discovered the local olive oil, determining it was the best he ever had.

“They’ve been producing olive oil for thousands of years, but they only produce it for themselves,” O’Neill says. “That’s when I had the idea that we had to bring this back home.”

The couple has teamed up with family members in California, starting a line of imported olive oils and accoutrements. “It’s a matter of introducing both the people to Cyprus and vice versa,” O’Neill says.

Villa Cyprus is available at Calandro’s supermarkets or through villacyprusimports.com.