THE NEW
SALSA
fixtures of the American diet, it
is employing a flavor palette that
would test the limits of acceptability in the Middle East.
One recent day, Mary Dawn
Wright, Sabra’s executive chef,
stood before an array of hummus containers at the company’s
Virginia factory, discussing these
techniques. She popped open a
tub labeled Asian Fusion.
“Israelis would never ever
think it’s considered to be hummus,” she admitted.
A glistening spoonful of some
brightly colored carrot and ginger mixture distinguished the
dip from anything you’d find in
a hummusia. Sabra collaborates
with outside “flavor houses,”
whose scientists also help develop classic American products like
Doritos, she explained.
Asian Fusion is just one of
more than a dozen flavors that
Sabra has invented in its effort to
convert more Americans to hummus, and Wright was almost certainly correct in her frank assessment of what Israelis might think
of them. Even Zohar didn’t bother to feign enthusiasm for Sabra’s
Buffalo Style flavor. “I detest it,”
he said.
But for Zohar, and presumably
HUFFINGTON
06.30-07.07.13
for the rest of Sabra’s executives,
personal feelings about the flavors are as irrelevant as hummus’
place of origin. What matters are
the cravings of the average American consumer, and Zohar seems
to think that no American is beyond the company’s reach.
At the Superbowl, he noticed
that many of the tailgaters were
eating Louisiana fare — “all kinds
of crabs and shrimps, whatever
it is.”
He didn’t see any hummus
containers amid the jambalaya
and gumbo.
“Maybe in New Orleans they
are eating hummus not as much
as people in New York are eating
hummus,” he said recently. “But
give us two years. They are trying
it, and when they try it they become a lover.”
Saki Knafo is a business reporter
for The Huffington Post and a
life-long hummus eater.
HuffPost
reporter
Saki Knafo
discusses
the politics of
hummus.
Tap here
for the full
interview
on HuffPost
Live.