Moroccan
Home cook
Nadia’s story
Nadia’s great talent as a home cook as well as her love and passion for cooking stem from her Moroccan heritage. It is her Moroccan heritage which has been her inspiration and motivation to share her extensive knowledge and skills in using the traditional combinations of herbs and spices of Moroccan cuisine. Her heritage has also inspired the authentic recipes that she learned at an early age to prepare a wide variety of delicious Moroccan dishes with her mother. These recipes were passed on from her grandparents who were cooks by trade and worked in embassies and top hotels in Marrakech during the 1930s. Moreover, her vast array of skills and culinary knowledge were only further developed as a result of her experience as a qualified FE teacher, teaching languages and Moroccan cookery.
Nadia now proudly utilises the vast array of skills that she has acquired to produce authentic Moroccan dishes for your event. Moroccan cuisine is one of the most diversified cuisines in the world with strong features of Berber, Andalusian, Mediterranean and Arab cuisines, and some European and sub-Saharan influences. It makes use of a great variety of aromatic spices which is reflected in Nadia’s dishes. One of them includes her famous lemon chicken tagine which inspired the creation of her delicious marinade, served with fluffy, steamed couscous or flatbread – staple foods in Moroccan cuisine. More examples of her famous dishes include her chicken tagine with prunes and almonds and her couscous a la marocaine meal (with veg and chicken), but as Moroccan cuisine makes use of a variety of fresh vegetables, there are plenty of flavoursome vegetarian dishes that proudly feature in Moroccan cuisine, such as Nadia’s vegetarian tagine.
What’s more, she branched into entrepreneurship by creating a wonderful lemon chicken marinade as an accessible product that would make Moroccan home cooking easy. The product was born from her working with a team and teaching them authentic Moroccan recipes; they asked if there was a solution to creating lemon chicken tagine without compromising on the flavours that they created in the cookery session and without having to buy all the spices. As a result, Nadia started by trying her family recipes and using all the skills of mixing spices that she learnt from her mother at an early age, exploring the aromas of the Marrakech souks and choosing the spices. She started by making her homemade preserved lemons to create the perfect marinade for her customers to enjoy. Then she decided to try to put her family's authentic recipe in the jar and produce a marinade that anybody could use and create the perfect tagine to be proud of – something that they could share with their loved ones. She made the first batch and gave it to her friends and family to try and she received encouraging feedback that made her want to produce even more.
Many of her meals come accompanied by a fresh salad ranging from couscous, beetroot, carrots or lettuce and tomato as well as an authentic dip such as her hummus dip or Zaalook dip - a flavour-packed Moroccan salad made of cooked aubergines and tomatoes seasoned with garlic and the aromatic spices that are classic in Moroccan cooking.