From Salé to Providence
Lalla Souad
At the root, my grandmother, Lalla Souad. The land she owned stretched acres and acres to the place where the Souss River meets the Atlantic Ocean. She grew everything that could grow, raised every animal that would let her. All of the ingredients that entered her kitchen had just left the vine, the soil, or the coop.
A Traditionalist in the kitchen, she brought the Moorish inspired dishes of old to life - before my eyes.
Cuisine from this era paid homage to the peak of Moorish refinement in the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco. The balance of flavors brought to the forefront, salty and sweet lived in harmony in Lalla's warm meals.
Home: all start there
Raphya, stood tall in the kitchen, the air perfumed with garlic, saffron, cumin and paprika. Every dish she crafted brought me further into the art of Moroccan cuisine. From a line of cooks and farmers, both my parents saw their kitchen as a treasure, a place to explore and create with the flavors of Fés, of Salé, and of Marrkech. At home, the fusion of Moroccan cuisine and French influences gave my mom her own flare.
Salé is a pirate city in a one of the most diverse countries in the world. Influences from across every sea found their way into the city's energy, customs, and food. Never too far from the ocean, new bits of the world washed up on our doorstep every day. And every day, we cooked the foods we loved with just a pinch of what we had found.
a tradition of farm to table
The Moroccan
When I moved across the ocean, Morocco lived in me. The flavors, sounds, smells, and especially the cooking, would never leave me. Years of living in the United States brought my brother Jawad and I to open Tea in Sahara in 2009. A relaxed café came to be that made us feel we'd never left.
Mohamed Sefiani
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