Rima HamadiThe Hamadi family came together during the pandemic and had an impact on the larger community. Clockwise from top left: Rima, Rami, Adonis, Joe and Samar Hamadi.This First Person article is the experience of Rima Hamadi, a a CBC producer inToronto. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please seeIt started off as a way to pass the time. My older brother and I had moved back to our family home in Mississauga, Ont.
What we never expected was how it would end: with thousands watching us cook, my parents being recognized in the grocery store, and a community raising more than $100,000 for two different charities.The theme of Sunday night's cooking competition was chicken. I chose a recipe I had cooked once before: a balsamic-glazed chicken stuffed with goat cheese with a simple salad. My brother found his recipe online: a mushroom and tomato sauteed chicken with a Greek salad.
I started to get so nervous for Sundays that I would stay awake the night before, visualizing recipes. For week five of our competition, Adonis made a pad thai, left, and I made a honey-garlic sesame chicken with fresh noodle rolls on the side.We were starting to plan for our ninth episode when news broke of George Floyd's death. As Sunday came around, my brothers and I did a group huddle and chose to skip the competition that week.But people continued to message us, asking where our weekly videos were.
Our family decided to make a GoFundMe for our fans and match any donations that came in. The money went to the Black Legal Action Centre.Going into week 11, Adonis and I were tied at five wins apiece. With one final event, the winner would take all.
cbcradio 'Look, ma, no masks!'