About Your Chef
Lahcen is a Berber from the south of Morocco. He grew up in Amellago, a small agricultural village in the High Atlas. Lahcen’s father is a shepherd and a farmer, so Lahcen spent his childhood in the mountains, taking care of the herd, and in the field, helping his parents farm the land. When he was 10 years old, his parents sent him to another town for school. This is where Lahcen had to learn to cook for himself. After he finished high school, Lahcen worked in a small restaurant and he became fascinated by the work of the chef. This is when he decided that he wanted to make cooking his career. He went to hotelier school, but he got his most valuable experience a few years later when he worked in Azrou alongside a Moroccan chef named Aziz, who had been trained at the world-renowned cooking school in Laussane, Switzerland. With Aziz, Lahcen learned how to make cooking an art. Since then, he has continued to perfect his art. In 2002, he came to Fes where he worked in some of the city’s top restaurants and became more familiar with Fassi cuisine. Lahcen is adventuresome in his cooking, yet at the same time remains dedicated to exploring traditional Moroccan cuisine from every region of the country. He keeps his cuisine light and also experiments with vegetarian variations on traditional dishes.
Since launching Fes Cooking in 2006, Lahcen has been featured in the New York Times Sunday Travel Section, he has appeared on the Canadian travel program Les Marches Du Monde (The Markets of the World) and in the fall of 2007, he will appear on the BBC’s Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes.
The Gris Valley, where Lahcen grew up
With the BBC’s Rick Stein
Lahcen serving mint tea in a nomad’s tent.
