0:00
Meet and agree the menu
Mint tea at the riad, then choose which classics to cook alongside the pastilla, based on your interests and diet.
Fes, Morocco· Concierge · Mon–Sat · 09:00–18:00 GMT+1
Fassi specialties: pastilla, mrouzia, harira and rfissa
Cook the dishes Fassi families make for weddings and holidays: a sugar-dusted pastilla, plus two or three of mrouzia, harira and rfissa, agreed with you in advance. You start in the souk with a warqa maker, then cook in a medina kitchen for about 5–6 hours. It suits people who already cook.
- Private or small-group
- Menu agreed with you
- Recipes to take home
What the class is like
These are the dishes Fassi families cook for weddings, religious holidays and guests they want to honour. They take time, they mix sweet and savoury in ways that surprise most visitors, and they are rarely on a standard class menu. This class is built for people who already cook and want to learn the city's signature food properly.
Pastilla is the centrepiece. You won't make the paper-thin warqa sheets yourself (Fassi cooks buy them from specialists in the souk, and you'll watch one at work), but you will make the filling, fold the pie and finish it. Around it you cook two or three of the other classics, chosen with you in advance: mrouzia, harira, rfissa.
Best for: Experienced home cooks; Anyone who fell for pastilla on their first night in Fes; Travellers with a full day to give to food.
- How long
- About 5–6 hours
- Where
- A riad or family kitchen in the Fes medina, with a stop at a warqa maker in the souk
- Diets
- Vegetarian
- Families
- Best for adults and teens
How the class runs
A typical running order. Times are from the start of the class and shift with your group and the season.
0:20
Souk visit: warqa, spices, almonds
Watch a warqa maker dab dough onto a hot plate to make the sheets one by one, then buy almonds, saffron, ras el hanout and fresh herbs.
1:20
Start the slow dishes first
Mrouzia and rfissa both need long, low cooking, so they go on the fire first. The harira base is built at the same time.
2:30
Pastilla filling
Cook chicken (pigeon on request where available) with onion, saffron, ginger, cinnamon and herbs, set eggs in the reduced sauce, and fry and grind almonds with sugar and orange-flower water.
3:30
Fold, bake and dust
Layer warqa, filling and almonds, fold the pie closed, bake it until crisp and dust it with icing sugar and lines of cinnamon.
4:30
The feast
Sit down to a proper Fassi spread of everything you made, with mint tea and fruit. Recipes follow by email.
What you cook
bastila
Pastilla
A large round pie of warqa pastry filled with spiced chicken or pigeon, eggs cooked in the onion sauce and a layer of sweet fried almonds, finished with icing sugar and cinnamon. The best-known dish of Fes.
Mrouzia
Lamb slow-cooked with ras el hanout, honey, raisins and almonds until it is sticky and sweet. Traditionally made after Eid al-Adha, it keeps well and is served in small portions.
Harira
A tomato soup with lentils, chickpeas, herbs and a little meat, thickened at the end with a flour-and-water mix. It is the soup that breaks the fast during Ramadan, served with dates and chebakia.
Rfissa
Torn pieces of msemen or trid flatbread soaked in a broth of chicken, onions, lentils and fenugreek, scented with ras el hanout and saffron. Traditionally made for a new mother and for family gatherings.
Private or small-group
Private
Your party and your cook, with the menu built around the dishes you most want to learn. The best way to take this class.
Small-group
Shared with a few keen cooks on a set menu of pastilla plus two classics. Runs less often than shorter classes, so ask early.
Dietary needs
A vegetarian pastilla is possible (vegetables, eggs and almonds, or a vermicelli and almond filling), and harira is easily made without meat. Mrouzia and rfissa are meat dishes at heart, so a vegetarian version of this class swaps them for other Fassi dishes. The class is heavy on almonds and wheat, so it is not suitable for nut allergies or a strict gluten-free diet.
Good to know
This is a long class with real work. Expect to be on your feet much of the day. Pigeon pastilla is traditional but chicken is standard; we'll tell you what's possible for your date. Around Ramadan, harira and chebakia are everywhere in the medina, which makes it a fine time to take this class.
Before you knock
The questions people ask us most before they plan a trip.
Will I make warqa pastry from scratch?
No, and neither do most Fassi cooks. Warqa is made by specialists in the souk, and you'll watch one at work before buying the sheets. In class you make the filling, assemble, fold and bake the pastilla.
Is pastilla made with pigeon?
Pigeon is the traditional filling in Fes, but chicken is what most families use now and is our standard. Seafood pastilla is a separate, more recent dish, and we can include it on request.
Is this class too difficult for a beginner?
It's not difficult, just long and detailed. A confident beginner will be fine; if it's your first Moroccan class, the riad class with a market visit is a gentler start.
Keep cooking
Riad class + souk shoppingShop the Fes el-Bali food souks with your cook, then carry the bags back to a riad kitchen and cook a full Fassi lunch from what you bought.See the class
Pastries & cookiesGazelle horns, chebakia, ghriba and almond briouats: the sweets Fassi families make for weddings, Eid and Ramadan, rolled and shaped by hand.See the class
Tagine & couscousThe two pillars of Moroccan cooking, done properly: a sweet lamb tagine and a kefta tagine on the fire, and couscous rolled by hand and steamed three times.See the classPair it with: Moroccan cooking classes: what to expect, Fes food tour of the medina, Moroccan food and the tagine, Ramadan travel in Morocco.
Send your dates, group and diet. We'll set the menu with you.
- Tell us what drew you in. Your dates, who is travelling and what you want to see.
- A person reads it. We write a day-by-day plan for your group, private or small-group.
- You change anything. Then we confirm the guides, drivers and riads.