It was a quiet weekday afternoon, the kind that blurs into the rest when you’re four months postpartum. School was still in session, the store was still and Deema Al-Qawasmi sat at a table inside Bazaria with her infant son sleeping in his car seat beside her. She was tired. She needed something — a little deliciousness, a little pick-me-up, a little joy.
“I really wanted something sweet,” she says now, recalling the moment. Mohammad Al-Qawasmi, her husband and the gelato chef behind Bazaria Sweets, asked, “What flavor should I make?”
Deema didn’t hesitate. “Can you make something like Lotus Biscoff?” He looked at her and simply said, “I can do that.” Then: “With coffee or without?”
“I need coffee,” she told him. “Let’s do some coffee.”
He got to work, blending the cookie butter and coffee into a smooth gelato base. As the machine began to churn, the mixture emerged in ribbons — soft, silky and just the right shade of golden brown. “It looked so smooth,” she says. “I took a spoon, and it just melted in my mouth. The flavor was decadent, and it melted in your mouth.”
For about 45 seconds, the stress, exhaustion and everything else melted away. “Nothing existed,” she says. “It was just pure, heavenly gelato.” She didn’t say much at first, but Mohammad caught her expression. “He looked at my face and saw how quiet I got, how happy I was,” she says. “I think my eyes even closed for a second.”
He asked, “Is it good?”
“I need more,” she told him.
She meant it in the most literal way possible — she wanted another bite, another scoop, another moment of that smooth, coffee-kissed gelato melting on her tongue. But it was also something more. In that quiet, sleep-deprived moment, Deema realized what she was tasting wasn’t just a treat — it was talent. This wasn’t just a sweet escape from the fog of new parenthood. It was the beginning of something bigger.
That same instinct, that same precision, would lead Mohammad to create a flavor that placed him among the best gelato makers in the world — one of just 21 chefs across North America to qualify for the Gelato Festival World Masters tournament.
“Why don’t we make our own ice cream?” Mohammad had said one day, several years before his wife made a simple request for that afternoon pick-me-up.
Deema blinked. “Do you know how?”
He didn’t. But he was determined to find out. A former network engineer, Mohammad was no stranger to solving complex problems, and gelato became his newest puzzle. He approached it like he had any technical challenge before: by reverse-engineering it, piece by piece.
The idea for Bazaria Sweets didn’t come overnight — it took root gradually, shaped by circumstance, curiosity and an instinct to create. In 2020, before their son was born, Mohammad and Deema bought a modest dessert shop in Plano, serving frozen yogurt and Blue Bell ice cream. But that wasn’t the long-term vision.
“We started off with kanafeh, the sweet cheese dessert,” Deema says. “And then Mohammad said, ‘Why don’t we make our own ice cream?’ And I was like, ‘That would be great. Do you know how?’ And he was like, ‘No, but we’ll learn.’”
The learning curve would be steep. But Mohammad wasn’t starting from zero. His skills came to fruition after he moved to the U.S. in 2017. “I was alone,” Mohammad said. “I had a roommate. He couldn’t do anything; he couldn’t cook anything. So I start cooking.”
He may have started cooking out of necessity, but it clearly ran in his blood. His brother, back in Jordan, manufactures sweet cheese for traditional desserts, his sisters are talented bakers and even his niece has competed in televised cooking contests. “Good culinary DNA,” he says.
Mohammad also had a late introduction to gelato. “The first time I had it was here in the USA,” he says. “They don’t have gelato. It’s ice cream in Jordan.” That first time was in Chicago. The second was in Dallas. But it was enough to spark something deeper.
When Mohammad decided to pursue gelato seriously, he began reaching out to Italian chefs, suppliers and U.S.-based artisans. But just as the pieces were coming together in early 2021, a massive winter storm hit Texas. “Snowmageddon came, and our upstairs unit flooded us,” Deema says. “We were closed for about 14 months.”
No time was wasted. While the store remained shuttered, Mohammad threw himself into learning. His first lesson came from a gelato distributor in Houston — someone whose grandmother had been in the business and who introduced him to Italian ingredients and techniques. From there, connections blossomed: Miami became a hub for training, ingredients and collaboration with Latin American gelato masters. “One of them was from Mexico, another from Colombia,” Deema says. “Anytime he had questions, he could ask them. You learn the basics, and then you build on them through experience.”
“I went to take courses in Europe, in the Middle East and in North America to see the flavors between them,” Mohammad says. “Next time, I want to take a course in China or Japan or Singapore.”
When Bazaria finally reopened in April 2022, it was no longer a frozen yogurt shop — it was a full-fledged gelateria. Today, every batch is made with milk from the grass-fed cows of local farms and imported Italian ingredients. “You need a good base to make good gelato,” Deema explains. “It’s just like pizza: you need good dough.”
Not long after Bazaria reopened with its from-scratch gelato, Mohammad began experimenting with a new creation, something that honored his Middle Eastern roots while still feeling completely his own.
This kind of culinary shorthand is woven into Mohammad’s gelato. His creations don’t just blend ingredients; they blend cultures. One scoop might evoke the rosewater-kissed notes of traditional Levantine booza, while another leans into the rich, creamy elegance of Italian orange mascarpone.
One flavor in particular captured both culture and imagination. Mohammad’s almond fig gelato started simply, as a basic almond flavor. “In the beginning, not having much experience, we made basic flavors — vanilla, chocolate, cheesecake, almond.” Sales were slow, and he often had to discard leftovers.
But Deema encouraged him to add something extra. After experimenting with chocolate and other ideas that didn’t work, they discovered caramelized fig — a game changer. “It was amazing,” Mohammad says.
A loyal customer, who came weekly just for almond fig, suggested adding nuts. “I called my sister in Germany and asked what we could do differently with almond,” Mohammad says. She recommended croquant — caramelized almond.
Thus, fig krokan, an almond gelato ribboned with caramelized figs and studded with roasted almond pieces, was born. Rich, earthy and unexpected, it tasted like nothing else on the menu. Maybe even in the country.
“Some customers, when they have that first bite, they compare us directly with Italy shops,” Mohammad says. “They did not compare me with ice cream here in Plano or Texas or Dallas. They compared me directly to Italy.”
It didn’t just wow customers. It caught the attention of the Gelato Festival World Masters, the most prestigious gelato competition in the world. For Mohammad, the stakes were high.
Held every four years, the tournament is a global showcase of the most imaginative and technically gifted gelato chefs, culminating in a world championship in Italy. Before anyone can get there, though, they must qualify.
Mohammad did more than qualify. His fig krokan gelato earned him a spot among just 21 chefs from North America, representing the U.S., Canada and Mexico at the semifinals in High Point, North Carolina. There, he walked away with second place.
“Then he goes to California,” Deema explains. “Then he goes to Italy. And he competes among gelato chefs all around the world.”
She laughs, recalling the moment he returned from a previous round. “I called, I was like, ‘Did you win? He was like, ‘No.’ And then I was like, ‘OK, that’s OK. There’s always next year. It’ll just give us time to think of a different flavor.’ And then he came home and he showed it to me. I was like — ‘What, you said you lost!’ He was kidding. That’s not nice. That’s not nice at all.”
With the North American finals set for August in Los Angeles, Mohammad now has a real shot at representing the U.S. on the world stage. Whether or not Mohammad makes it to Italy, the fact that a small gelato shop in a quiet corner of Plano has made it this far speaks volumes. What began with a simple craving, a request for a unique flavor during Deema’s postpartum days, blossomed into a passion project that’s captured both local and regional attention.
“It’s by trial and error,” Deema says. “At the end of the day, you go with it, work with what works and build from there. He has a passion for it. That’s another key — his passion for creating quality work.”
That initial craving for Biscoff gelato sparked Mohammad’s creativity and set the wheels in motion for a journey that would take him much further than they could have imagined. Now, with another baby on the way, who knows what will be created next?
But for Mohammad, the journey isn’t just about the destination; it’s about the dedication, the learning and the joy of creating something special — one scoop at a time. As Mohammad puts it, “When you love your job, and when you love what you’re doing, the result will be amazing.”
This article originally appeared in Local Profile magazine. Check out the issue here.
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