A Short History of Moroccan Cuisine

The Amazigh (Berber) foundation

The oldest layer, and still the bedrock, is Amazigh — the indigenous Berber peoples of North Africa. From them come the two pillars of Moroccan eating: couscous, the steamed semolina that may be the country's oldest staple, and the tagine method of slow-cooking in an earthenware pot over a small fire (see how a tagine works). The Amazigh larder of wheat and barley, olives and olive oil, dates, legumes, preserved foods and simple, resourceful desert cooking underlies everything that came later. Argan oil and amlou, from the Amazigh southwest, are part of this heritage too.

Arab and Islamic influence

From the 7th century, Arab expansion brought Islam — which shapes what and when Moroccans eat, from halal practice to the rhythms of Ramadan (see Ramadan foods) — and, crucially, spices and new ideas via long-distance trade. The Arab world connected Morocco to the spice routes, introducing and popularising cinnamon, ginger, saffron, cumin and the art of complex spice blending that culminates in ras el hanout (see ras el hanout). Arab influence also brought a love of sweet-savoury combinations, almond-and-honey sweets, and refined pastry-making.

Andalusian and Jewish layers

Two further influences deepened the cuisine in the medieval period and beyond.

Sub-Saharan trade and the French era

Two more currents complete the picture. The trans-Saharan caravan trade, for which Marrakech was a great terminus, connected Morocco to West Africa and the wider spice world, bringing goods, ingredients and influences up from the south. Much later, the French Protectorate (1912–1956) left its own legacy: a strong café culture, the ubiquity of coffee and the baguette alongside traditional breads, pastries and certain restaurant conventions. This is why a Moroccan breakfast can pair a French-style baguette or a milky nous-nous coffee with age-old msemen and amlou (see the breakfast guide and drinks guide).

Regional kitchens within Morocco

Morocco is not culinarily uniform — its cities and regions each keep their own specialities, shaped by geography and history.

• Fez: the refined, imperial kitchen — elaborate pastilla, subtle spicing and the most Andalusian-influenced cooking.
• Marrakech: robust and earthy, home of tanjia and a strong grilled-meat and street-food culture (see the tanjia guide).
• Essaouira and the coast: grilled fish and seafood, chermoula and fish tagines and couscous.
• The south and Sahara: dates, the buried-in-sand medfouna 'Berber pizza', and a desert larder of preserved and slow-cooked foods.
• The north (Tetouan, Tangier): strongly Andalusian, with distinctive sweets and Mediterranean produce.

A cuisine of layers

What makes Moroccan food so distinctive is that none of these layers erased the others — they accumulated. A festive lamb tagine with prunes, almonds and ras el hanout carries the Amazigh pot, Arab spice, Andalusian fruit-and-meat and centuries of trade in a single dish. To taste that history, cook a classic like our chicken tagine, explore the spice pillar, or take a cooking class or food tour that connects the dishes to their origins. For the ingredients that carry these stories, see the ingredients glossary.