Cooking class with Chef Najla

This was our first time visiting Marrakech and we were looking to experience making traditional foods and for someone to help us understand the city and culture. Najle accomplished this. We had a hands on experience making ceremonial dishes and learned a lot about the city and culture. I would highly recommend this experience. We were welcomed into Najle's home and treated like friends. She is extremely friendly, curious and versatile. She allowed us select what we wanted to make from a variety of traditional dishes and was accommodating to all our needs. We chose to make lamb which i would recommend. I typically look for extremely interactive cooking classes and I would say this was one of them. Everyone (7 people) was able to interact with each dish and no one was left out from participating. We were asked to meet very close to her house and shopped at a small local grocer on the same street for our ingredients. I was expecting to shop for the ingredients through the Souks, but as we came to learn it is illegal for a Moroccan citizen to walk you through the Souks without a tourist license. The trip to the small market was sufficient and i was impressed that she explained what to look for in each different type of produce. We then made our way to her home where her sister thoroughly cleaned all of the produce and prepared our assembly area while we were able to ask questions and learn about Marrakech. During this time we were able to ask many questions about the city, culture and lifestyle there and she was also very interested in our cultures and lifestyles. This is also when we learned about and enjoyed both mint and green tea, as she explained how locals prepare and adjust the caffeine levels to the tea. She also provided us with local cookies. The cooking aspect was wonderful. She is a professionally trained chef and had tons of tricks and tips on how the locals cook as well as how professional chefs cook. We even had a professional baker with us and between the two of them we all learned many things about making bread, pastries and exotic dishes. Once we chopped and mixed the ingredients they were put into the pressure cooker and we continued to cook the cold dishes. We were also taken to a local bakery to see how locals prepare their daily bread and the specific system used for this type of culture. Once we picked up our freshly baked bread and our dishes were finished cooking, we sat down to enjoy our delicious meal.