Visitors to Morocco tend to be blown away by the variety and depth of flavors in Morocco’s cuisine. Morocco’s exotic North African dishes are big on flavor, aroma, and spice. Popular dishes like chicken tagine, Moroccan meatballs, and hot couscous are so good that you’ll want to be able to cook them at home. It’s also fascinating to discover the unusual ingredients that are sometimes added, such as plums, boiled eggs, tea, dried fruits, and saffron.
Moroccan cuisine typically uses fresh, locally grown ingredients combined with spices for extra flavor. There are a number of cooking schools, riads, and hotels that teach guests how to create the best Moroccan dishes. We pick the top 5 best cookery school experiences in Morocco below:
1. Palais Amani, Fez
We think Morocco’s best cookery school experience can be found at Palais Amani in Fez in Morocco. Conveniently situated just inside the medina walls lies this beautiful luxury hotel which perfectly blends traditional Moroccan style and décor with state-of-the-art facilities and modern-day comforts. This outstanding hotel, featured by Conde Nast Traveller, provides a tranquil oasis of calm amid the hustle and bustle of Fez.
The hotel features traditional Moroccan furnishings and exquisite tiling, and the centerpiece is a beautiful interior garden planted with fragrant orange, lemon, and tangerine trees. There is also a fountain where you can watch birds, a rooftop bar with spectacular views, and an exquisitely decorated and candlelit full luxury hammam which offers guests a wide range of treatments and massages to choose from. The hotel also offers its guests excellent cookery classes and wine tasting.
The hotel features eighteen opulent rooms and suites set around majestic gardens, each with its own character, some boasting impressive high ceilings, and others a cozier feel with low beams. All rooms benefit from Wi-Fi connection, a private sound system, fine Egyptian hand-embroidered linen, a central air conditioning system, and a modern ensuite bathroom equipped with luxury toiletries and a hairdryer.
The cuisine at Palais Amani is based on traditional Moroccan home cooking with a modern twist. Served either in the gastronomic Eden restaurant or on the rooftop terrace, the dishes are prepared using locally sourced produce. There are also two licensed bars.
Palais Amani is the perfect destination to improve your cooking skills at their Fez Cooking School, with hands-on cookery workshops taking place inside the meticulously restored palace in the medina.
These classes take you out into the medina’s local souks with the chef, lifting the lid of an earthenware tagine and getting under the surface of this fascinating country. Taste the simple delicacies from the souks with Palais Amani’s chef as a guide. This is a journey with a difference, a cultural exchange that goes well beyond the list of ingredients, or a visit to the tourist sights.
Bring these exotic ingredients back to the palace for a group cooking workshop, rounded off by a relaxing lunch or dinner to taste what you have just cooked. You will leave the workshops with a recipe booklet, a Fez cooking school diploma, and your mind full of new ideas to try out back home.
2. La Maison Arabe, Marrakech
La Maison Arabe’s long culinary history dates back to 1946, when two enterprising French women, Hélène Sébillon-Larochette, and her daughter, Suzy, were granted the right by the pasha Thami el Glaoui to set up the first restaurant open to foreigners in the medina. The pasha provided a servant from his nearby palace to teach them the intricacies of Moroccan cuisine, and La Maison Arabe quickly became one of the leading restaurants on the African continent.
La Maison Arabe has since become renowned for its cooking workshops, which are open to in-house guests and all food lovers visiting Marrakech. Learn step-by-step the secrets of authentic Moroccan cuisine from our dadas (traditional Moroccan cooks), using modern, everyday kitchen equipment to make precious recipes passed down from generation to generation.
3. Hakima’s Moroccan Cooking School
Hakima’s Moroccan Cooking School is a non-profit organization founded in 2007 by Carolyn Watts of Port Townsend, Washington.
Hakima’s Moroccan Cooking School provides the unique experience of preparing authentic Moroccan food in the kitchens of the keepers of their families’ recipes. You create your own journey, preparing authentic Moroccan cuisine with the original keepers of Moroccan recipes, staying in a wonderful riad in the heart of Marrakech, and enjoying Marrakech and the valleys, mountains, cities, souks, and sands of Morocco on local trips of your choice. This is an opportunity for a wonderful Moroccan vacation, and by staying here, you help fund job-skill training, functional literacy, and employment for Moroccan women.
4. Libzar, Marrakech
Restaurant Libzar in Marrakech offers cooking workshops that introduce you to the secrets of Moroccan cooking led by chef Assia. The workshops begin with a tea ceremony and an explanation of Moroccan cuisine and the uses of spices. Then Chef Assia guides you through the cooking process from start to finish. You learn to cook the main dish, two starters, and a dessert. Then you get to eat your creation.
5. Khadija’s Kuzina, Essaouira
Khadija’s Kuzina offers Moroccan cooking classes inside Khadija’s Essaouira home. Guests better understand Moroccan culture, cuisine, and daily life through cooking and conversation. The menu is completely customizable and can cater to any dietary needs, including food allergies, vegetarian, vegan, gluten, dairy, and nut-free options. This cross-cultural experience includes a main, side, fresh juice, and fruit dessert. Parties of all sizes are welcome, ranging from individual and travel partners to families and student groups.
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