Shop for spices and vegetables in a medina market, then cook a tagine, Moroccan salads and bread with a local chef in a riad kitchen — and eat what you make.
Moroccan cooking is built on a handful of techniques and a well-stocked spice box. This hands-on class in a traditional riad kitchen teaches you both. You start in the market with your chef, choosing vegetables, herbs and spices, and finish at the table eating a full lunch you have prepared yourself.
The morning begins with a walk through a neighbourhood market in the medina, where your chef introduces the essentials: ras el hanout, cumin, sweet paprika, saffron threads, preserved lemons and the olives that flavour many tagines. You'll see how a local family shops for the day's meal and learn to recognise good-quality spices — useful knowledge if you plan to buy some in the souks.
Back in the kitchen each participant has their own workstation. You'll prepare a main tagine — usually chicken with preserved lemon and olives, or a vegetable tagine for vegetarians — alongside two cooked salads such as zaalouk (smoky aubergine) and taktouka (peppers and tomato). You'll knead khobz, the everyday round bread, and, where possible, take it to the neighbourhood communal oven, a tradition still alive in the medina. The class ends with the mint tea ceremony: how to rinse the gunpowder green tea, add fresh mint and pour from a height.
Recipes are shared so you can reproduce the dishes at home. If you want to taste more of the city's food culture, join our Marrakech street food tour by night; for other activities, see our guide to Marrakech.
Meet your chef at the meeting point near Jemaa el-Fnaa and walk together to the riad and the nearby market.
Choose vegetables, herbs and spices with the chef, who explains the key ingredients of Moroccan cuisine and how to judge quality.
At your own station, prepare a tagine, zaalouk and taktouka, and knead dough for khobz bread.
Bake the bread in the neighbourhood oven where possible, then learn the mint tea ceremony while the tagines simmer.
Sit down together on the riad patio or terrace to eat the meal you cooked. The class ends around 13:30.
At the Café de France on Jemaa el-Fnaa square. Your chef will meet you at the entrance; exact directions are sent after booking.
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