“We had to choose — either pay the deposit on our home, or launch Fix. We chose Fix.”
That one decision — driven by gut, grit, and a pregnancy craving — catapulted British-Egyptian Sarah Hamouda from full-time mother to global dessert entrepreneur.
Today, she and her husband Yezen Alani are the force behind Fix, the viral gooey Dubai-based chocolate brand that started with a pistachio-filled creation — and sparked an international sugar rush.
“Tamara is the secret,” she says. “She’s indeed our Million Dollar Baby.” While Sarah was pregnant with her youngest daughter, she began craving something specific — a flavour that didn’t exist yet.
So she set out to create it. That craving turned into Fix’s very first flavour — a chocolate shell filled with pistachio cream — and a runaway hit.
“Even though it was a craving, Tamara doesn’t want anything to do with it now … But her favourite is the pistachio,” Sarah says with a grin.
Fix may have begun as a personal indulgence, but it quickly turned into something far bigger.
“We launched during COVID, and we didn’t have much,” she says. “Whatever we had saved over 10 years — that’s what we put into it. We had to choose between putting a deposit down on a home, or building this. And we took the risk.”
That risk paid off. Today, Fix is a cult brand — and one of Dubai’s proudest dessert success stories. So much so, in fact, that the pistachio market briefly felt the heat.
“You are the lady who triggered scarcity in pistachios,” I tell her during our interview, and she laughs with a mix of pride and disbelief.
Sarah never imagined her creation would go viral — or be copied around the globe.
“I never expected it to be replicated so heavily,” she admits. “I get messages from people in Germany, Paris, Los Angeles — they’re making their own crêpes, waffles, ice cream. It’s crazy. It’s flattering, but I just hope they do it with dignity. Care about the consumer. Use better ingredients. There’s no integrity otherwise.”
And while many businesses rush to franchise and scale, Sarah remains unapologetically slow and intentional.
“People may think it’s a mistake, but I think we made the right decision. For us, it’s all about quality and experience,” she says.
“If we had scaled quickly, maybe things would have been different. But we wanted people to experience the product the same way we do. That matters more to us than just being everywhere.”
For Sarah, Dubai was the perfect place to start.
“Dubai allows you to be creative. It pushes boundaries,” she says. “That’s what Fix is about. The diversity of cultures, the acceptance, the community — all of that shaped who we are. It’s always been about people.”
That people-first approach is also how she built Fix with her husband. While some caution against working with a spouse, Sarah embraced it.
“It’s not easy,” she says.
“Segregating work from home life is a challenge. But we share the same passion and love for this. I would never have done it with anyone else. He brings in skills — operational things I could never deal with. We try to avoid talking about Fix 24/7, but sometimes it slips in.”
Her honesty is disarming. In a world of polished PR talk, Sarah is refreshingly real.
“I always say — just be real. People are done with the media-trained version. They want flaws. They want vulnerability.”
That authenticity shines through, not just in her story but in her stance on money.
“I’m scared of loans,” she admits.
“I didn’t want to live beyond our means. People might say that’s our limitation, but I think otherwise. It made us smarter. Everything we did came from what we had saved. We’re not nepo babies. We built this from scratch.”
The copycats, of course, came quickly. A recent article warned that cheap knock-offs were using harmful ingredients. What would she say to those imitating her work?
“Replicate it — but replicate it with dignity,” she says firmly. “There are some great brands who’ve learned from us and still care about the consumer. But there are also those just trying to make money off the hype. That’s hard to watch. Fix was never about that. It’s about doing it right.”
Despite the viral fame, her kids remain adorably unaffected. “I don’t think they understand how big this is,” Sarah laughs.
“Tamara doesn’t even like the mango, which was the pregnancy craving. She’s all about pistachio now.”
And while women like Huda Kattan paved the way, Sarah’s inspiration remains closer to home.
“Honestly, it’s mothers,” she says. “People who create something out of nothing. When someone tells me I’m an inspiration, it reaches my heart — because I don’t see it like that. I’m just doing what I love.”
To the countless women who cook magic in their kitchens but don’t know how to start, she offers this:
“It’s never too late. Never. Fix started as an idea. Turning it into a recipe, a brand — that took time. And we didn’t have investors. We didn’t take loans. We used what we had. That’s all it takes sometimes — conviction.”
In the end, Fix isn’t just chocolate. It’s resilience. It’s risk. It’s love — packaged in gold foil and pistachio cream.
If Fix were a Dubai landmark?
“It would be all of them,” Sarah says. “Every part of Dubai is what Fix is — cultures, nationalities, people coming together. That’s what we reflect.”
