The Berbers, or Amazigh, are the first inhabitants of North Africa. Their cooking is the cooking of the Atlas mountains and the pre-Saharan valleys: the food of farmers and shepherds, made from what grows on the spot and what keeps.
The ingredients
Barley first, older than wheat in the region, made into flatbreads, soups and a more rustic couscous. Olive oil, pressed in the villages. Pulses, lentils and chickpeas. Dates and almonds from the south. Saffron from Taliouine, two hours from Ouarzazate, among the best in the world. Vegetables from the irrigated plots: squash, carrots, turnips, onions, tomatoes. And meat, mostly lamb and chicken, for feast days.
The gestures
Berber cooking is slow. The tagine, a clay dish with a conical lid, concentrates the steam and makes meat tender over two hours on embers. Couscous is rolled by hand, then steamed two or three times over the broth. Bread bakes in a clay oven. Nothing goes fast, and that is the point.
The dishes
- Tagine with vegetables, with chicken and preserved lemon, or with meat and prunes.
- Seven-vegetable couscous, the Friday dish.
- Rfissa, shredded msemen soaked in a broth of chicken, lentils and fenugreek, cooked for births.
- Tanjia and medfouna, less common in the south but present.
- Amlou, a paste of roasted almonds, argan oil and honey, for breakfast.
- Mint tea, made in front of you and poured from a height so it foams.
What you will eat at our table
At La Table du Berbère the whole menu comes from this tradition: Berber tagines, couscous, rfissa, pastilla. The vegetables come from the garden at Riad Chay. The full menu is online, and the table is reserved for the evening.
To see how these dishes come together over one evening, read a Berber dinner in Ouarzazate.
