” Spice is life. It depends upon what you like…
have fun with it. Yes, food is serious, but you should have fun with it”
Emeril Lagasse
In the Kitchen
I was never interested in the kitchen growing up. I spent my time nose in my books, only dealing with food when my mom was not home and dad was cooking steaks or kofta (Moroccan meatballs).
It wasn’t until i moved on my own for college that i had to start feeding myself and that’s when things changed!
Long phone conversations with Mom asking about the ins and outs of tangines, temperatures, spices! I was studying chemical engineering at the time so i treated every recipe as a science project. Why did it work? why did it fail?
By the end of freshman year, i was asked to represent Morocco at the university’s international food fair and make enough couscous for 200 people. I had nightmares about it every night leading to the fair: The couscous would jump out of the pot and drown me. In the end, all was well and i got my first taste of “the smile”… that smile you see on someone’s face when they enjoy the dish you served them.
It was the beginning of the addiction!
I take great care into making sure that my food is unique, fresh, more or less healthy, using the best ingredients available in Beijing. I also try to minimize our carbon footprint by using local ingredients when possible. It’s soul food, Like mama would cook it.
Some of the dishes are recipes “borrowed” from mama, some are recipes i’ve created over the past 20 years, some others are just a fusion of eating and tasting the world.
I hope you enjoy eating them as much as i’ve enjoyed preparing them!
As the saying goes” “All good things come to those who wait”
