Mourad New Moroccan

Working with Mourad Lahlou is like doing ecstatic dancing in Converse high tops to a mix of Jay Z and Berber trance music. The ideas are whirling around faster than you can scribble and the food keeps hypnotizing you in weird and mysterious ways. We spent a year and a half turning Mourad’s recipes, stories, and self-invented, citizen-of-two-worlds perspective into a coherent, modern take on Moroccan cuisine. We suggested we write two books in one. The first hundred pages is seven hands-on cooking classes on the fundamental building blocks of Moroccan food. I wanted to create the feel of cooking alongside Mourad, with his signature mix of meticulous precision and hilarious, fuck-the-rules-it-just-needs-to-taste-awesome attitude. The rest of the book is the recipes, punctuated by stories, techniques, and surprising takes on tradition. It’s our kind of cooking, and we loved the whole process, especially our trip to Morocco, a dreamlike two weeks of nibbling, gorging, cooking, wandering through markets and palaces, and, yes, a night of ecstatic dancing.

Publisher: Artisan
Role: Writing and Creative Direction