6 must-try culinary experiences in Morocco

Morocco — a country synonymous with melt-in-the-mouth tagines and couscous fragrant with vibrant spices — offers no shortage of culinary adventures in its towns, cities and mountaintop hamlets. Expect farm-to-table dining among olive groves on the outskirts of Marrakech, bread-making workshops in the Amazigh town of Ouirgane, and lunches that support Moroccan women from underprivileged backgrounds. Here’s our pick of the gastronomic experiences you won’t want to miss on your next trip.

1. Cook local dishes at Atelier Chef Tarik

There’s never a dull moment at this cookery school. Based in Tahannaout — a town at the foot of the High Atlas Mountains — this community-focused culinary institution teaches groups how to make Moroccan classics. After class, everyone sits down together to enjoy the fruits of their labour in a peaceful, leafy setting. If you’re lucky, you’ll be taught by chef Youssef, whose wit, deep knowledge and merciless sense of humour make the time fly. Over lunch, you’ll learn how the school moves location every 10 years — settling in towns and villages with fewer opportunities. Round off the class with a glass of tea infused with mint, absinthe, rosemary and verbena.

2. Take a street food tour of Marrakech

The labyrinthine Marrakech medina is home to a trove of cafes and food stalls — and there’s no better way to explore it than on a walking tour. Start in the city’s Jewish Quarter at a cafe specialising in sfenj (a fluffy, unsweetened Maghrebi doughnut). Locals enjoy it plain, stuffed with egg or drizzled with honey. The tour winds through the medina, stopping to sample olives and chebakia (a rose-shaped biscuit made with sesame and spices) and kaab el ghazal (a crescent-shaped pastry filled with almond paste and orange blossom water). End the evening at Chez Lamine, where lamb is slow-cooked underground for five hours and served with slices of preserved lemon.

3. Dine among olive groves

If agrotourism is your thing, head 30 minutes out of Marrakech to Farasha Farmhouse, a creative retreat based around a farm and garden. Set up by husband-and-wife Fred and Rosena Charmoy, the property was once the home of French painter Patrice Arnaud and offers villas with local touches such as zellige tiles and vintage Moroccan furniture. The real showstopper, though, is the sunset supper: a five-course feast served under fairy lights among 400 olive trees, all set against the dramatic backdrop of the Atlas Mountains. Dishes draw on the retreat’s produce and might include shredded lamb pastilla with fennel salad and mint labneh, followed by a date crumble with mint-tea ice cream.

4. Visit a restaurant helping local women

When American-Moroccan Nora Fitzgerald Belachen met a single mother begging in the Marrakech medina, it inspired her to found the non-profit organisation Amal Women’s Training Center and Moroccan Restaurant. Her aim was to support disadvantaged women in Morocco through the power of cooking. Now, 13 years later, her vision has grown into a team of 50 women working across Amal’s Marrakech restaurant and learning centre, which has already trained more than 300 women. Tucked away in the leafy, artsy neighbourhood of Gueliz, it serves tagines, a range of lamb dishes and desserts — like the orange-and-cinnamon ice cream — that evoke the flavours of a Moroccan childhood.

5. Enjoy a timeless tea ritual

Tea has been a sacred part of Moroccan culture for millennia. Some say it first arrived when the Amazigh imported tea leaves from China; others claim Queen Anne sent them to Moroccan ruler Sultan Moulay Ismail in exchange for British prisoners. Today, the time-honoured ceremony — known locally as atay naa naa — is a key hospitality ritual. Traditionally, Moroccans drink Maghrebi mint tea: gunpowder green and infused with fresh mint and plenty of sugar. You can experience this on village visits and souk tours, as well as at teahouses such as 1112 Marrakech, set inside a 300-year-old riad in the medina, or Zawia Tea Room, in the same city, whose rooftop terrace is perfect for warm evenings.

6. Learn about the sanctity of bread

Breaking bread in Morocco is the anchor of every meal, a marker of tradition and an expression of gratitude for life’s blessings. In the Atlas Mountains, the most common varieties are tafarnout, baked against the hot walls of clay ovens in Amazigh homes, and khobz — literally ‘bread’ in Arabic, with a chewy crust and fluffy interior, perfect for mopping up soups and stews. At Kasbah Africa, a nature retreat in the town of Ouirgane, you can visit a mill to prepare dough and bake Amazigh bread. Meanwhile, the bread workshop at La Sultana in Marrakech includes a cooking class, a visit to a traditional communal oven and a serving of desserts and warm mint tea.