Marrakech Spice Workshop — Blend Your Own Ras el Hanout

Ras el hanout — literally "head of the shop" — is the signature spice blend of Morocco, traditionally the best mix a spice merchant could assemble, sometimes running to thirty ingredients. In this workshop, based around the Rahba Kedima spice square, you meet the individual spices before you blend them: cumin, coriander seed, ginger, turmeric, sweet paprika, cinnamon, cardamom, mace, dried rosebuds and grains of paradise among them.

You will toast and grind the whole spices yourself, learning why toasting wakes up the oils and why grinding fresh beats anything pre-ground in a jar. The host explains the logic of Moroccan seasoning — that the food is aromatic and warm rather than hot, that saffron and preserved lemon carry a tagine, and that the same base spices lean sweet for a pastilla or savoury for a stew depending on what you add.

Beyond ras el hanout, the session covers the other pillars of the Moroccan pantry: how preserved lemons are salted and cured, how to make a simple charmoula marinade for fish, and how smen (aged butter) and argan oil are used. You taste as you go, so the abstract becomes concrete — the difference between real saffron and safflower, or fresh cumin and stale, is obvious once it is under your nose.

You leave with a jar of the blend you made, notes on the ratios, and the knowledge to shop for genuine spices anywhere. The workshop pairs naturally with a cooking class, where you then cook a tagine using the very blend you ground.