After a warm welcome by Edwina, you will start your guided Marrakech market tour by discussing your menu over coffee. Followed by compiling your shopping list in English (and then Arabic!) of the ingredients for your eight chosen dishes. Then walk together a few minutes to the souk (local market), where you will shop in your new language. Here you will be surrounded by local, seasonal produce, and you will choose all the ingredients on your shopping list for your Marrakech cooking class. Return together to the riad where you will begin preparing your feast!
Your Moroccan cooking class in Marrakech with Edwina is hands-on and will include eight dishes based on your dietary preferences. You will begin with learning the Moroccan art of tea making and then begin preparation for your eight chosen dishes. Menu choices are seasonal and will depend on availability at the market. This is a fun, interactive class of chopping, slicing, juicing, stirring and making chermoulas (marinades) for your chosen dishes. After cooking, your meal will be served in the central courtyard, where the dining table is set under the canopy, amid lush bougainvillea's.
Spices used in all the prepared dishes, are for sale in the riad, after the class. Should guests wish to purchase saffron, Edwina is happy to take you to the spice trader, a 5-minute walk away.
Edwina lives in a beautiful riad (a traditional Moroccan-style home built around an open courtyard) in the Medina (walled city). Her home is beautifully restored and Edwina offers a variety of cooking classes, tasting menus and full culinary holidays.
For dinner, you can expect a seasonal tasting menu inspired by the morning’s market. In the warmer months, dinner is served on the terrace top, and during the cooler months it is served around the downstairs courtyard fire. Your menu might include dishes like beetroot and orange soup, lemon chicken tagine, slow seared calamari or tanjia of beef cooked in hammam coals or butterflied sardines, honey and salted aubergines, tempura zucchini or spiced, oven-roasted vegetables and twice rolled couscous. Your meal will end with Edwina's signature dish of almond-filled, rosewater meringues served over a chocolate ganache.
This experience is not suitable for children below the age of 12. Cooking classes are unavailable on Fridays (meals, however, are available 7 days a week). Since the riad is also used for cooking vacations with stay, you might see other guests while you are there.
This is just a sample menu to give you an idea of the types of dishes the host cooks. Your menu will vary according to seasonal availability.
Lemon chicken tagine Slow seared calamari or Tanjia of beef cooked in hammam coalsHoney and salted auberginesTempura zucchini or Spiced, oven-roasted vegetables Twice rolled couscousAlmond-filled, rosewater meringues served over a chocolate ganacheBeetroot and orange soupChef Edwina left her native Australia for Spain in 2000 and began cooking Moroccan dishes soon after, having being invited to a Moroccan wedding and returning home with tagines and spices. She became so passionate about the flavors of Moroccan cuisine that in 2002 she relocated to Marrakech and bought a traditional riad surrounding an open-air courtyard. Over the next four years she completed a renovation of the riad, turning her home into a culinary destination.
Edwina started her cooking school in celebration of her son, the acclaimed Melbourne chef Ed Golombek, who passed away after battling cancer. Edwina cooks together with her dada Hasna to teach traditional Moroccan cuisine as well as Moroccan-fusion dishes.
"I had the chance to enjoy a full experience with Edwina and Hansa - market visit, cooking class and meal. After a warm welcome by Edwina, we started discussing the menu. She was flexible, suggesting the dishes but allowing me to decide or adjust the meal. We then started preparing the market list in English and Arabic so that I could participate in the shopping process. That was a plus. Spending the day with Edwina is also a great opportunity to discover her beautiful riad, a peaceful haven on a quiet side street of the busy Marrakech Medina. I had a great time and learned a lot! I had got up very early that morning and driven a long way, so the riad was the perfect place to relax while spending a wonderful time cooking. "
"It was lovely meeting Edwina. She was open and friendly and flexible about what we wanted to cook. We were not meat eaters so she accommodated us. It was great learning a bit of Arabic before we went into the market to buy the produce. I really enjoyed the conversational exchange with the shop owners and they really appreciated that we had taken the time to learn our shopping lists in Arabic. This was a highlight for me. Cooking the food was interesting because I was not aware how many different spices are used in Moroccan cooking, and how contrasting flavours and textures really work together. The food we cooked was a nice twist on the traditional styles of cooking and everything tasted just delicious!"
"I love Edwina, which is not easy for me to admit. She's vivacious, witty, and an amazing teacher. The way she interacts with you to translate cooking techniques makes it so easy to learn. There were moments when she had us taste the food and decide what flavor we thought was missing. It was a complete hands-on experience that allowed us to use all of our senses. Everyone who loves food, but is afraid to enter the kitchen, needs to learn with Edwina. Actually, everyone should just cook with Edwina."
"It was lovely meeting Edwina. She was open and friendly and flexible about what we wanted to cook. We were not meat eaters so she accommodated us. It was great learning a bit of Arabic before we went into the market to buy the produce. I really enjoyed the conversational exchange with the shop owners and they really appreciated that we had taken the time to learn our shopping lists in Arabic. This was a highlight for me. Cooking the food was interesting because I was not aware how many different spices are used in Moroccan cooking, and how contrasting flavours and textures really work together. The food we cooked was a nice twist on the traditional styles of cooking and everything tasted just delicious!"
