From a home kitchen to a global category, the founders’ story earns its moment.
- FIX first began in a Dubai home kitchen in 2021.
- The Can’t Get Knafeh Of It bar helped spark Dubai chocolate.
- Founders Sarah Hamouda and Yezen Alani received the inaugural business award.
- FIX bars are stocked at Harrods and Dubai International Airport terminals.
A thick chocolate shell gives way to crisp pastry and pistachio filling. That contrast helped turn Dubai chocolate into a talking point far beyond the city itself. For FIX Dessert Chocolatier, the Dubai-born brand behind the original “Can’t Get Knafeh Of It” bar, the story now has another milestone: an inaugural Dubai-it Award. It started in a home kitchen.
At Expo City Dubai’s UAE Pavilion, co-founders Sarah Hamouda and Yezen Alani received the award on 11 November, in the Projects in the Field of Business category. The recognition celebrates more than a popular sweet treat. It honours a home-grown idea that helped create an entirely new product category.
A food video needs only a few seconds to make someone stop scrolling. A distinctive colour, a crisp sound or a filling revealed with one cut can turn a dessert into something people want to try for themselves. FIX’s knafeh-inspired chocolate had that visual and sensory appeal. The crunch mattered. Its signature bar became widely recognised through social media, helping put Dubai chocolate on the international food map.
The scale of that attention is striking. The official Dubai-it Award profile records more than 6.5 million FIX chocolate bars sold and over two million customers reached in 15 months. The hashtag #DubaiChocolate also generated 13.8 billion views in three months, according to the award profile. Those are remarkable numbers. They show how a product associated with one Dubai chocolatier became a global conversation.
For travellers passing through Dubai International Airport, the brand has become part of the city’s edible souvenir story. FIX’s Original Dubai Chocolate is available at Terminals 1 and 3, while London shoppers can find it at Harrods. The reach is tangible. A Dubai-born confection has travelled well beyond the shelves where it first found an audience.
There is a bigger business story behind the viral moment. The Dubai-it Award recognises projects that deliver results through speed, quality and effective execution, and FIX’s influence has extended beyond its own sales. The official announcement notes that Dubai-style chocolate sales grew by 1,234 per cent in a year. The category travelled. So did the city’s name.
For Hamouda and Alani, the award also brings the story back to its starting point: a Dubai kitchen, a love of chocolate and an idea they chose to build without knowing how far it would travel. Their recognition belongs to the team behind that growth, too.
