In the Zitelman family, working in food and restaurants was never meant for the next generation. Harry Zitelman, who owned the iconic mid-century D.C. restaurant Bassin’s told his son Rick: “I did not have a restaurant for 30 years so you could go to college and open a restaurant — absolutely not.” But two generations later, all three of Rick’s daughters — Amy, Shelby, and Jackie — work in the industry as the team behind Soom Foods, a tahini company that supplies restaurants like the acclaimed Zahav and home cooks across the country. Food is “kind of in our blood,” explains Amy.  

On December 20, 1904, their great grandfather Moshe Suttleman moved from present-day Ukraine to the United States. Here, he went by Morris Zitelman, settled in Baltimore, and operated a corner store. “The family lore is that it was also a place where…there was bootlegging,” says Amy. “And I think that my grandfather was a runner for betting…some type of Jewish mafia business.” 

Born in 1913, their grandfather Harry grew up in the shop and when he was drafted in World War II, “he lied to the army and said he had culinary experience,” Amy recounts. He was sent to Normandy to clear slain soldiers from the shores, but also found his way to a culinary unit and traveled to Paris. 

Back in the United States, he turned to the front of house, becoming the co-owner of Bassin’s restaurant, which served corned beef sandwiches and hot dogs near the White House. As Bassin’s grew, it opened D.C’s first sidewalk cafe and expanded into adjoining rooms, one housing a piano bar while another featured go-go dancers. Like their grandfather Harry, their father Rick grew up around food, learning to make cocktails, finished with cherries from the barrels of maraschinos that Bassin’s bought, and helping the in-house butchers.  

On the other side of the family, the sisters’ maternal grandfather Marvin Kramer owned a sandwich and butcher shop called Mr. Sirloin in the Northeast section of Philadelphia and other relatives founded Quaker Valley Foods, a large meat distributor. 

Food served its purpose on both sides of the family, providing business opportunities and a way to build a life in America, but at home, cooking wasn’t imbued with Jewish sentiment. When the sisters were growing up in Maryland in the 1980s and 1990s, “Our family did not pass down traditions or create stories around food,” Amy says. “It wasn’t really part of the generational links.” And, like their father, the sisters were never encouraged to enter the food industry.

Still, the Zitelman sisters found their way in. In 2011, Shelby visited her sister Jackie in Israel and her then-boyfriend (now-husband) Omri. On her trip, Shelby met Omri’s mother Rachella who served her signature carrot cake, made nutty and rich with tahini. The slice of cake made her wonder why high quality tahini wasn’t available back in the U.S. and ultimately set her and her sisters on a mission to change that. 

The sisters banded together and created Soom Foods, starting out by carrying buckets of tahini to the kitchen doors and loading docks of restaurants. Amy jokes about the sisters, saying: “We couldn’t stay away — and ended up going through the back door.” 

When asked what their grandfather Harry would have thought about Soom, Amy says, laughing: “I think more than anything, he would just be shocked by how much people pay for tahini…. But, otherwise, I think he would be really proud.”