College besties start the morning a new way—with chickpeas
By Julia Guillen
A BOWL of ChiChi with fruit.
Chickpeas are one of the world’s oldest legumes. But in nearly 10,000 years of cultivation, there has never been a chickpea-based hot cereal until ChiChi.
When Los Angeles native and Marlborough School alumna Chiara Munzi was in college at Washington University in St. Louis, she became frustrated with the lack of simple, healthy breakfast options. She had quickly found that eating oatmeal every morning made her tired later in the day, which she discovered was because the oats spiked her blood sugar, resulting in sugar crashes.
“I was eating a lot of regular oatmeal, but I would end up just getting hungry an hour after eating it,” Munzi said.
She began experimenting with garbanzo beans in her dorm kitchen, developing what she dubbed “chickpea oatmeal.” She then introduced it to her friend and classmate, Iowa native Izzy Gorton, who was smitten.
“[I] knew we needed to share [chickpea oatmeal] with the world,” Gorton said in their website video.
The two became business partners while still at college. After extensive recipe testing, they perfected the chickpea-based hot cereal. ChiChi is high in protein and fiber and cooks in three minutes.
CHICHI FOUNDERS Chiara Munzi (left) and Izzy Gorton.
Munzi and Gorton began selling ChiChi at farmers’ markets and got overwhelmingly positive responses from early customers, including six-time Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
Two years later, ChiChi is now reaching mass retail in Target stores across Southern California. ChiChi can also be bought online in four flavors: Original, Maple Brown Sugar, Apple Cinnamon and Dark Chocolate.
“Our mission is to disrupt the whole breakfast industry with chickpeas,” Munzi said.
For more information on this breakfast alternative, visit chichifoods.com.
Category: People
