The Taste of Marrakesh

Immerse yourself in an Arabian atmosphere during the fifth edition of the Djemaa el Fna festival in Museumpark in Rotterdam. During this cultural festival, you can enjoy culinary tours, talk shows and cooking demonstrations, among other things. From Friday 22 through Sunday 24 September.

Cooking tours and taste sensations
The festival offers an extensive cultural (music, theatre, comedy, etc.) and culinary programme. Almost 40 chefs demonstrate their culinary skills live at steaming barbecues and in white market stalls on the square. Writer Abdelkader Benali, known for the culinary TV series Chez Benali and the exhibition at the Wereldmuseum, ‘I Cook Therefore I Am’, will also give a tantalising cooking tour. And 24Kitchen chef Mounir Toub will teach you how to prepare easy and flavourful Moroccan dishes in no time.

Family recipes and culinary discovery tours
Two stages that every food-loving festivalgoer should definitely visit are Podium Culinair and De Huiskamer. At the first stage, chefs work with Moroccan counterparts of Dutch classics. For example, Rotterdam’s oliebollen master Richard Visser will bake his first sfenj during the festival, a kind of North African doughnut.

There is also plenty to taste in De Huiskamer of the Berber El-Fassi family. Here, Abdelkarim El-Fassi (director of the documentary ‘My Father, the Expat’) and his father Hadj Ali serve a three-course menu based on family recipes, with great attention to the experience and the story behind their special recipes.

Day tickets cost € 4,- and can be purchased online and at the door. View the entire programme here and click here to order tickets.