Wilde in the World: Cooking in Marrakech

There is no better way to get to know a country, than to explore its cuisine. Food speaks volumes about culture and history. It feeds the belly and the soul. When visiting a new country, I love to attend cooking classes and immerse myself in the local flavors.

While in Marrakech a few years ago, the boyfriend and I took a half day class at Riad Monceau. The class is held poolside in the Riad and lead by a local chef. There are a number of different cooking schools that you can visit for classes, pick on based on your schedule and the menu. We were scheduled to make a three course lunch of chicken tagine, lamb with couscous and a vegetable m'hancha. We also had dessert, but didn't prepare it.

Our class was about twelve students from all over the world. We had a couple from Australia, several Parisian ladies on a girls getaway and quite a few Canadians in addition to several Americans to round out the group. The class with held in English and French, so it was easy to follow along in English, but I was able to pick up some new French culinary phrases!

The cooking class was long, but the final product was definitely worth the effort. I enjoyed it at least. The boyfriend isn't a big fan of cooking and he was bored after the second hour. As with most international cooking classes that I've taken, there is a lot of food prep involved in the course. You'll be busy chopping, shredding and stirring, the actual cooking process doesn't take that long.

My favorite item that we made was the vegetable m'hancha. It was prepared by shredding onion, carrot, zucchini and cabbage adding spices and rolling it up into a sheet of pastry. It's baked and then topped with a tomato compote. You can find the recipe here on my cooking site. It's a process, but so delicious.