When Ghofran Hamza, a Syrian war refugee, arrived in Wales three years ago she was used to going without food and relying on UN food parcels.
By March 2020 she planned to open Aberystwyth's first Arabic restaurant, but she'd barely had time to switch on the oven before the pandemic hit.
When she did eventually open Arabic Flavour, a year later, there were queues down the street to get through the doors - it's a day she'll "never forget", she said softly.
The diminutive 23-year-old has striking features and speaks with a quiet directness as she sits perched on a chair in a café in her new home town. For everything she's been through - fleeing war and uprooting her whole life - Ghofran refuses to accept she's achieved more at 23 than most people do in their lifetime.
"I don't feel like I've done enough to deserve such praise," she said. "I still feel I haven't achieved enough. I feel like I'm talking about another version of myself. I feel like I'm living and not living at the same time. It's still not real for me, it still feels like I'm dreaming and I'm going to wake up.
"I don't feel like I've done that much. I feel there are people out there who've done better things."
I've only known her for 10 minutes but already I get a sense Ghofran is a woman with high standards who refuses to accept second best. She talks precisely and with a sense of purpose, earnestly making her point as she explains just how difficult it is to set up a business when you quite literally have nothing.
Ghofran grew up in north-east Syria on the Turkish border, living with her mum, dad and three younger siblings who are now aged 20, 10 and nine. It was a "poor lifestyle" in a remote village where her dad worked as a greengrocer. As war crept ever closer, the fear set in: "We would go out and never know if we’d make it home," she said.
"Mum was frightened for me to stay. I was the first girl in the family to get an education," she added. But that life, and the hope that came with education, disappeared when the conflict forced them to flee across the border into Lebanon as refugees in 2012.
They left everything they had and found themselves in a home which was "barely fit for animals". She explained: "We couldn't get education or work because the Lebanon government wasn't supporting refugees. We had lost all our papers in the war."
Ghofran and her mum were able to find some work book keeping and in a factory while her dad and brother struggled. During the six years they were there, her mum also worked cooking for wealthy Lebanese families and found a job in a catering company, learning skills that would one day help start a business in a new life on another continent.
Not that the family could ever dream of what was to come: "We didn't have any papers and we couldn't go back to Syria to fix it," Ghofran said. "It was impossible for me to think about travelling."
They were all surprised when the UN offered the family a place on the international refugee resettlement programme. "We never thought we'd get that chance," Ghofran said, with a humility that stands out throughout our conversation. "There were refugees in worse cases than us, other people who deserved it more than us.
"The situation in Lebanon is very bad and we got the opportunity to travel and we didn't say no." But the offer came with a condition - they had to get to the UN headquarters by the end of the day to sign the documents and if they didn't their place would be offered to someone else.
It was touch and go as they arrived at the UN by taxi long after the office had shut for the day but a kind-hearted official was standing out on the roadside waiting for them: "She didn't want us to lose the place," Ghofran said.
Even so, after signing in a flurry, they heard nothing for more than a year: "We didn't know if it was happening or not," she continued. "We had no information. We were thinking even if we were sent to Africa, like Sudan, it would be good for us." Then out of the blue, the UN contacted them again and said they were being sent to Wales.
"I didn't know what even was the UK," she said with a half-smile. "I went on Google to check what is England. I recognised London, because London is in everything we watched growing up."
There were a few short sessions preparing them on what life might be like in the UK and she had her first glimpses of what Ceredigion would look like: "I was amazed by the place," she said. "It looked amazing. We used to watch cartoons in English with the same old-style houses. I couldn't believe we were going to a place like that."
After many false starts and cancelled flights they finally got on a plane destined for the UK - three years after signing the UN document. They left everything they owned behind and were so afraid of yet another disappointment they didn't tell anyone they were going, barely daring to believe they were finally leaving.
"We didn't believe it was going to happen," said Ghofran. "We left without saying goodbye to anyone because we weren't sure we were going to make it. It felt so hopeless but then the plane started moving and I thought, finally."
On the bus journey from Birmingham Airport to Wales, Ghofran's first thought was it looked nothing like London: "For a few hours we didn't see any houses," she said. "Mum asked if we were going to the end of the world." But once settled in Aberystwyth, Ghofran and her brothers and sister started immersing themselves in the community, practising their broken English and meeting new people.
"For two years I had nightmares where I'd dream I was being sent back to Lebanon," she said earnestly, raising her perfectly-shaped eyebrows above her dark brown eyes. "I feel like if I go back there I will be trapped."
Ghofran's Arabic Flavours was born of a dream that first took hold when she partnered with some other Syrian women to create a pop-up kitchen in Aberystwyth called the Syrian Dinner Project. You can read more about that here.
Initially it was her mum's idea to start cooking: "We wanted to include other Syrian women and started out as a social enterprise," she said. The idea was to be less reliant on the state, she added, and to help other Syrian families be able to afford little things like new clothes and toys for their children.
It's her mum who taught her to cook everything. "As a girl, I would watch my mum prepare stuffed vine leaves from scratch," Ghofran said. "When we moved here, she taught me how to cook. Now you can’t tell the difference between her food and mine."
Walking past a vacant unit on Northgate Street, Ghofran decided on a whim she'd like to open her very own restaurant and testament to her determination and focus, she secured the lease on the 20-cover premises. She had barely turned 20.
"I saw a shop for rent and thought why not," she said. "I spoke to the landlord and I decided to go for it. He kept rates low for us. People warned me that running a business when we’d been here just a few months would be too much for a young woman, but I saw a chance to create something."
It meant she had to leave the Syrian Dinner Project. In March 2020 she was all set to open and then the pandemic hit. Spending that first year cooking at home selling takeaway food from their family kitchen instead, Ghofran was able to hone her technique and practice everything from portion size to plating.
Her food - drawing on Lebanese, Syrian and Turkish influences - proved an instant hit. Looking at the precisely-cooked food on the Arabic Flavour social media pages, it's easy to see why. From her mouth-watering falafel to delicious-looking Manakeesh (a sort of Arabic pizza), everything looks fresh, authentic and above all else, tasty. She's also adapted a few recipes to make them gluten-free or vegan. Her attention to detail is such that every Facebook post is translated in Welsh as well.
"After the lockdown, I had limited money and experience, I just had to open as it was," she continued. Arabic Flavours opened its doors in March 2021 serving up Ghofran's best dishes. People were queuing along the street on the first day and for the first few weeks, her order book was full to bursting. She's never looked back since.
"I was very excited," she said. "It was a difficult day, we worked from morning into the night. It was the first time for us to serve people." It was also the day she met her Greek boyfriend, George Dionysopoulos, who came in as a customer: "We had so many people coming in and he was the only who got my interest," she laughed. A criminology and psychology student, he's been her biggest supporter over the past two years helping her navigate the pitfalls of opening and running a successful restaurant.
"Knowing that the cooking is from the Middle East, that's a big interest for people," she said, when I ask what her secret is. "They're trying the food knowing it's authentic." But it's not just the food that's the reason for her success, this is a woman with incredibly high standards and a work ethic that belies her tender years.
"The fact that we were able to bring food like this in a town like this is testament to that," said George. "It's food people didn't know about and to have people coming back again and again is an achievement."
He is justly proud of what they are creating: visitors poured into Arabic Flavour over the summer months, salivating over the menu, enjoying the weekly specials and soaking up the friendly atmosphere. But Ghofran never forgot her reason why, posting a heartfelt message at the end of 2021 that really epitomises her core values: "I wish to extend my gratitude to my mother for teaching me the traditional dishes and for sharing with me her cooking techniques which makes our food unique and special. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be where I am now.
"We came a long way from a war-torn and destroyed country and miserable life state to a life full of hope and dreams. I'm proud to be part of this beautiful community and I honestly couldn't ask for more."
Ghofran is someone who will always ask more from herself however, striving for perfection. Right now, she is balancing her university studies in International Politics with perfecting the restaurant, which is currently closed for some major building work. When it reopens in the third week of February, it will have a better set up, more tables and a useable bathroom.
Costing thousands, the latest work is her biggest gamble yet: "I thought, 'It's now or never, I'll take my chances,'" she recalls. It's one that can only pay off I say - she's slowly built a loyal and genuine customer base and recently featured in the Guardian food magazine alongside chefs from all over the UK.
"I feel responsible now to give people a good time," she said about the recognition. "It's very bad if people come to support you and you disappoint them with maybe not the perfect experience."
Her desire to constantly strive for perfection and her generosity of spirit is striking given all she's been through. Is she able to look back at everything she's achieved in Aberystwyth and feel a sense of pride, I ask?
"I feel proud and will feel even more proud when it's a proper business," she agreed reluctantly. "In Lebanon, I went without food; now I cook for others. My journey has come full circle. It’s hard to think of my friends back home, but when I cook, it’s a little bit of the food we shared.”
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