A Cooking Lesson in Fez

For a while there were only a few people teaching Moroccan cooking in Fez. Now the competition has well and truly been turned up and there are many places in the Fez Medina where visitors can learn to cook Moroccan dishes. Recently The View from Fez reported on Cafe Clock and Gail of FezFood having joined forces to launch a new Moroccan cooking school called Clock Kitchen and we will report more about that at a later date.

Today we will look at one of the several guest houses and riads that offer visitors to Fez the opportunity to spend a day learning the finer points of Moroccan cookery.

When Bronwen and Glen Edwards from Australia wanted to experience Moroccan cooking first hand they teamed up with Samira from the blog A Moroccan kitchen. Samira works at Riad Laaroussa and has the gift of making everyone feel at home in her amazing kitchen.

What follows is a photo-essay of the day that Glen and Bronwen spent with Samira.

Before setting out Samira updates her blog

The food and vegetable souq is crowded

Samira checks the quality of everything

Bronwen and Glen are impressed by the freshness of the vegetables.

At the butcher, Samira not only selects the meat, but insists on how it should be cut.

All through the shopping trip Samira takes time to answer questions and point out things of interest.

When the meat, fish and vegetables have been purchased, Samira, Glen and Bronwen head back to Riad Laaroussa and begin the chores of vegetable preparation, washing, cutting, peeling and chopping.

Preparing string beans and roasting peppers.

Bronwen makes a note of spices and Moroccan salad ingredients

It is now after 12 noon and sensing that everyone is getting hungry, Samira and her friend Fatima whip up a feast of Moroccan sardines and a beautiful fresh salad. One little known fact is that Morocco is the world's largest exporter of sardines.

Lunch in the kitchen at Riad Laaroussa

After lunch the serious business of preparing the dinner menu begins. there are a number of different Moroccan salads to make as well as a main course and a dessert.

The final part of the day is the meal enjoyed in wonderful surroundings and accompanied by a glass of fine wine.