Cooking Classes in Fes — Master Morocco's Most Refined Cuisine

Fes is Morocco's culinary heartland. As the old imperial and scholarly capital, it developed a court cuisine more elaborate than anywhere else in the country, and Fassi families still guard recipes passed down through generations. A cooking class here, usually inside a riad in the vast medieval medina of Fes el Bali, leans into that refinement rather than the quick-tagine formula.

The signature lesson is the interplay of sweet and savoury that defines Fassi food: lamb tagine with prunes, honey and toasted almonds; chicken with caramelised onion and cinnamon; or the labour-intensive seffa, a mound of steamed vermicelli or couscous dusted with sugar and cinnamon and studded with almonds. You will also learn a proper seven-vegetable couscous, steamed repeatedly over its own broth the traditional way.

Technique runs deeper here. Hosts often teach the slow-cooked confits and the balance of ras el hanout, saffron and smen (aged, fermented butter) that give Fassi dishes their depth, plus khlii — the preserved dried meat that flavours everyday eggs and lentils. Because the medina is a UNESCO-listed labyrinth of over nine thousand lanes, most classes begin with a guide walking you in to a nearby produce market to shop.

Fes sees fewer tour crowds than Marrakech, so classes are often more intimate and family-run. Wear closed shoes for the steep, cobbled derbs, plan for the walk in and out to take time, and come hungry — Fassi hospitality means you will eat generously at the end.