Who we are

Noushi Pastry is a classic story of love, history and community: A young child, Ranya, learns to cook and bake (while playing, of course!) alongside her grandmother at the age of 3.

She watches Teta Soumaya’s hands as they turn love into feasts to share with a growing family. Sharing stories about the family roots in Akka, Palestine — of community, tribulations, growth and the joy of bringing people together. Through food, Ranya has continued to explore and learn who she is as a part of a larger story and the people she carries with her — those who have moved mountains so she can shine.

Grandmother preparing food in a kitchen, wearing an apron, handling chicken bones in a metal tray, with cookware visible on the stove and kitchen items on shelves.

A young child licking chocolate off a metal whisk in a kitchen.

The Noushi Pastry name stems from a nickname bestowed upon Ranya after the delicious Palestinian treat, Manoushi. While there are now many playful iterations of the nickname, Noushi is the one here to tell the story.

Noushi Pastry treats lean into the joys and traditions of our food cultures, with the pizazz and creativity that come with Ranya’s eclectic NYC upbringing. Starting with the za’atar (known as brain food) in our Noushi Twists, our flavors communicate the hearts, humanity, celebrations and healing of Palestinian, Lebanese and Mexican heritage and people passed on through generations.

A woman and a girl standing in a kitchen, each holding vegetables, with the woman holding a decorative ceramic pumpkin and the girl holding a head of cabbage.

In 2023, Ranya pivoted careers from education and advocacy to study pastry at Gastronomicom Culinary School in southern France. She has worked in a two-Michelin star restaurant, a high-production bakery, navigated new languages, changed communities, shifted relationships, connected with old and new senses of self and vulnerability — joys, wonder, grief, beauty, resilience and much more.

Now, Ranya is reconnecting with her inner child to pursue a childhood dream of starting a business to share her family’s culture and humanity with the world. While the medium has changed, preserving our Palestinian, Lebanese and Mexican culture, learning and sharing love through food is in Noushi Pastry’s core.

We will of course be making mistakes along the way and aim to embrace them as a part of the journey. But we are here to, after all, celebrate that humanness and create community!