Things to do · Fes
Fes is widely regarded as the culinary heart of Morocco, where refined imperial recipes meet centuries-old craft. From hands-on tagine workshops in restored riads to spice-market tours and bread baked in the neighbourhood oven, here are twelve food experiences worth your time.
12 experiences
A hands-on half-day in a traditional Fassi riad kitchen, learning to layer a slow-cooked tagine and steam couscous from scratch in a couscoussier. Most classes end with a shared lunch on the courtyard or rooftop.
Walk the souks around the Attarine (spice) quarter with a cook to buy ras el hanout, saffron, preserved lemons and fresh herbs. Vendors explain blends before the ingredients head to the kitchen for class.
Learn to make Fes's signature dish, a layered warqa-pastry pie traditionally filled with pigeon or chicken, almonds and cinnamon and dusted with icing sugar. A patient, skill-focused class for keen home cooks.
An evening grazing tour through Fes el-Bali sampling street snacks such as bissara soup, maakouda potato cakes, grilled brochettes, sfenj doughnuts and fresh dates from market stalls with a local guide.
Shape khobz and msemen dough, then carry it to the neighbourhood ferran (wood-fired communal oven) as Fassi families have done for centuries, watching the baker fire and stamp each loaf.
Roll and fold honey-soaked classics like kaab el ghazal (gazelle horns), chebakia and almond briouats, the sweets that fill Fassi celebrations and Ramadan tables, with a pastry chef.
Master the theatre of Moroccan mint tea, from packing the pot with gunpowder green tea and fresh nana mint to the high pour that crowns each glass with foam, paired with local pastries.
A multi-course Fassi feast served on a riad terrace above the old city, typically opening with salads and bissara, a main tagine or pastilla, and finishing with seasonal fruit and tea as the medina lights up.
A plant-based session built around vegetable tagines, zaalouk and taktouka salads, lentils and seven-vegetable couscous, showing how Moroccan home cooking shines without meat.
An excursion to a farm or olive grove outside Fes to pick seasonal produce and press or taste local olive oil, then cook a country lunch over wood fire with the host family.
A guided tasting of Moroccan olive oils alongside culinary and cosmetic argan oil from women's cooperatives, learning to judge quality and how each is used in Fassi kitchens.
Join a Fassi household for the traditional Friday couscous, the week's most important communal meal, sharing a heaped platter of steamed semolina, slow-cooked vegetables and tender meat.
Most classes run three to five hours, often starting with a guided spice-market visit, followed by two to three hours of hands-on cooking, and finishing with a sit-down meal of the dishes you prepared.
Yes. Moroccan cuisine is rich in vegetable dishes, and most classes happily adapt recipes for vegetarian, vegan or halal diets. Mention any requirements when you book so the market shopping can be planned around them.
Classes typically cover staples like tagine, couscous and Moroccan salads, while Fes specialities such as pastilla and local pastries are often offered as dedicated masterclasses for more advanced cooks.
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