Visiting ESSAOUIRA

Portuguese, French and Berber architecture frame the maze-like streets of Essaouira, a western Moroccan city hugging the Atlantic Ocean. With its long beach, abundant seawater spa treatments and dramatic sunsets over the Purple Islands just offshore, relaxation is as easy to find as the northeast trade winds that create ideal kitesurfing conditions and Cooking Class. For total cultural immersion, stay in a riad, a traditional home-turned-guesthouse, and attend the annual Gnawas and World Music Festival.

Essaouira - Mogadur

As a location for an all round holiday and base for a cooking course, Essaouira is one of the most enchanting spots in Morocco and a much more relaxed destination than neighbouring Marrakesh. It’s both a laid-back port town and a chic seaside resort and has quietly become one of the must-visit places for independent travellers, artists, musicians and indeed shoppers who all descend here.

Previously called Mogadur by the Spanish, Essaouira has a rich history of rulers including the Phoenicians and Romans.  It was the Portuguese who held control in the 16th century before the town was re-conquered and returned to Arab rule.  Referred to as Essaouira's golden age, the 17th & 18th Century created the wealth that marks the town's architecture including the hotel Riad Maison du Sud.

A small town and as such easily accessible by foot, there’s very little hassle to be encountered which is perfect for browsing the souks. It’s the kind of place you get to feel is yours and you’ll want to return to again. The plentiful fish and spices are wonderful accompaniments to your Cooking Class.

Essaouira’s appeal is its charming blend of 18th-century medina, temperate climate, slightly alternative atmosphere, vitality, colour and it’s vast sandy beaches.

There are many activities we can arrange for you here. Choose from horse and camel riding, quad biking, photography lessons, a Hammam or learning how to play the bongos. You can also go shopping with Naima and bag a bargain.

Fatima’s Moroccan Cooking School - Essaouira

For the Tabakhats (cooks) of Morocco, cooking is an art that uses all of the senses to reach the right flavor, texture, and color using only their eyes as their scale.

The results reflect the mood of each individual cook: more or less sweet, more or less salty, more or less hot, more or less spicy.

The Tabakhats never wrote down their recipes but passed them down in the oral tradition.

The recipes used at the school are examples of those recipes.  There is a high rate of female illiteracy in Morocco, averaging about 60% for females over the age of 14 years of age. These Moroccan women grow up in homes occupied by large families, sharing small rooms, without running water and frequently lacking electricity.  Cooking was done on a propane or charcoal burner.  The recipes you will prepare come from just such a one burner home.

Fatima’s Moroccan Cooking School, located in the heart of Essaouira, offers  the chance to experience the cooking in a Moroccan style with Fatima who is very proud and enthusiastic to share the recipes and secrets of Moroccan cooking.

Essaouira Cooking Class

With Essaouira Taste you will have the chance to experience the cooking in a Moroccan style with Fatima who is very proud and enthusiastic to share the recipes and secrets of Moroccan cooking.

Essaouira Cooking Class itinerary

Welcome to Our Itinerary :

Pick up will be from 10:00am, then straight to the market to buy ingredients and learn how to bargain.


While visiting the fruit and the vegetable market, you will also go by a fish and a spice market where goods are beautifully exposed. You will then be invited into a local family’s house where you will have the opportunity to cook a Moroccan dish and have an insight into Moroccan living. This will also be a great opportunity for you to learn some words in Arabic and to interact with the local family.

At the end Fatima will be pleased to show you how to make Moroccan tea and you will be handed the recipe.