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Mourad Lahlou is a self-taught chef living in the USA. He left Morocco, more precisely Marrakech, to live the American dream and finish his studies in the field of macroeconomics. Back in the time, Mourad did not know how to cook but feeling like a fish out of water pushed him to experiment cooking to recall old family memories. Mourad later decided to leave school and go for the job that fascinated him the most which, surprisingly, was cooking. «My family did not understand why I would come all the way across the world to cook for other people», Mourad told the Daily Mail in an interview released on the 3rd of May.
In the 90's, the Moroccan cook opened his first business in the San Fransisco Bay Area. «I had never cooked before I opened my restaurant and literally started cooking when we opened the doors», recalls Mounir talking about «Kasbah», a restaurant that he later closed to open «Aziza» where he cooked all the dishes he liked back home with a unique touch that derives from his experience in the USA.
Cooking is all about memories
«I want to feel that when I eat something it reminds me of the way my grandmother made it or that is the best couscous that I have ever had. In Morocco, for our meal on Friday, my great grandmother used to roll couscous on Tuesday, dry it on Wednesday, steam and serve it to us on Friday», Mourad told the Daily Mail. For the 49 year-old chef, cooking is all about memories, feelings and coziness, a message that he wanted to convey through his traditional dishes, without distancing them from the America where he lived for more than three decades. Lahlou opened later «Mourad» another restaurant in San Fransisco’s Montgomery street in 2015 which received a Michelin star a few months after its inauguration.
Mourad has come a long way and very far from what he had imagined, he is a member of the American Chef Corps of the State Department’s Diplomatic Culinary program and has published a cookbook in 2011 called «Mourad : New Moroccan». The Marrakchi chef is also member of an organization called FPA (Food Positive Action) in Washington, D.C. that works on reducing food waste in America.
«I remember growing up in Morocco when we would buy a kilo of lamb to feed 12 people. Here a kilo, which is little over two pounds, is enough for two or three people», Mourad argued referring to the Moroccan culture.
Mourad’s love for Morocco has inspired him as a cook but instead of copying the recipes the way they are made in his homeland, he opted for creativity. Now he is making food that has both a cultural background and a modern texture that goes hand in hand with what a US consumer would enjoy.
