House of Taste owners, Mamdouh and Mariam, were both born in Alexandria, Egypt. They moved to Winnipeg in 2015 with their twin daughters and son. In 2019, Mariam was enlisted to lend her expertise to Folklorama’s inaugural Egyptian pavilion, staged at the University of Manitoba. She was primarily responsible for sweets such as konafa and a rice pudding dessert. Reviews were so overwhelmingly positive that she and Mamdouh began hunting around for a larger commercial kitchen, hoping they could take her fare to the next level. House of Taste officially opened for business 18 December 2021 and has since attracted both lifelong Winnipeggers in the mood for something different, and ex-pat Egyptians, hunting for a taste of home.
