We believe in the power of home cooking to bring people together. It’s why we create products that make cooking and sharing a meal easier and more joyful. Our products are designed for how we live and celebrate making (and breaking) traditions with family: given, chosen, and found.
Sharing a home-cooked meal is sharing our stories — there is a transformative power in uplifting the differences in how people cook and eat together. Our hope is that through telling these stories, we will help bring the disparate edges of our world closer together.
A Note from Shiza
As immigrants, my partner and I found Our Place in America by cooking and sharing food with new friends who became our chosen family. That’s why we started Our Place: to build a bigger table, one that would have room for all of us.
In an industry that made everyone feel inadequate, we took a new approach and created products that celebrated the beauty and joy of home cooking (and actually made it easier to cook). Our work here is rooted in authenticity and representation — celebrating all our traditions from Nowruz to Nochebuena, Ramadan to Shabbat.
It is my greatest privilege to work on building connections every day alongside our inspiring team and our beautiful community.
—Shiza Shahid, Co-Founder
First things first: What’s the meaning behind the name Our Place?
Come over to our place is one of the most generous everyday gestures out there, and we love it. It’s an open invitation, a welcoming, an extension of community. And that’s what we strive for: a table that’s big enough for us all to sit and gather around.
Would you describe Our Place as a kitchenware brand?
Sure, we make things for your kitchen, but we’re not a kitchenware brand. Everything we do is rooted in bringing people together. It just so happens one of the best and most authentic ways to do that is over a home-cooked meal.
I find cooking overwhelming. Is this for me?
So did we — that’s why we decided to do things differently and design for the home cook. Instead of tools that make cooking more complicated and intimidating, we make products that actually make it easier (and more exciting!) to cook.
Your products are beautiful.
Thank you for noticing! We think beautiful products help inspire you to cook on your own terms. Our logic: If it’s pretty enough to leave on your stovetop, you’ll want to cook more often!
I see the term “mission-driven brand,” but what does that really mean?
Impact isn’t one thing, it’s everything. From what our products are made of and packaged in to the women-owned manufacturing collectives we work with to the systems-based causes we donate to, the aim is to make our impact on the world kinder. For us, mission is in everything, including the stories we tell, the communities we uplift, the foods we talk about, and more. To learn more about our product and manufacturing practices, check out our FAQs.
Your pictures are making me hungry. Do you share recipes?
Of course! Head over to our blog, Your Place, for the most delicious recipes from our community. From setting your Eid table to top-secret family brisket recipes, we spotlight home cooks of every heritage to help inspire your next dinner party.
What is Traditionware®?
Traditionware® collections are designed to celebrate, honor, and tell the stories of specific traditions. They are odes to the celebrations we hold close and share around a table. In a world where the traditions of BIPOC and underrepresented communities have been overlooked, co-opted, and erased, these collections serve to uplift all the ways we celebrate and gather.
I feel like I don’t have many traditions from growing up. How do I start my own?
We believe tradition can be anything and held by anyone. We make (and break) traditions all the time! You get to choose your traditions and how they look and feel — they’re yours. And we hope that by telling the stories of how we celebrate (spiritually, seasonally, culturally, and otherwise), you can find some new traditions along the way.
