Most cooking classes happen in a basement or a hotel kitchen. Ours happens on a rooftop above the Medina, under a blue canvas canopy, with the call to prayer drifting across the city and the light changing from afternoon gold to evening rose as you eat.
An Accidental Beginning
It was not planned that way from the beginning. When Jawad first started welcoming guests to Art Darmed Event, the rooftop was just a rooftop — a place to dry clothes and watch the neighborhood go by. Then one group asked if they could eat up there instead of inside. Then another. Then it became clear that the rooftop was not just a practical choice. It was the whole point.
The Magic of the Open Sky
There is something that happens when you cook something with your hands and then sit outside above a city that has been cooking the same dishes for a thousand years. The food tastes different. The mint tea tastes different. Conversations go deeper and slower than they do at a restaurant table.
Simple and Unspoiled
We have kept the rooftop simple on purpose. Handwoven baskets from the ground floor gallery. Wooden chairs made by local craftsmen. A Moroccan lantern that catches the last of the sunset. Nothing that competes with the view and the smell of whatever is coming out of the clay tajine.
If you are visiting Marrakech and you do one thing that is not on a tour bus itinerary, make it this. Come cook with us. Eat on the roof. Watch the city turn golden.
Art Darmed Event — 1 Derb Zaouia, Marrakech Medina.