Renowned French Chef Discovers Moroccan Hospitality and Baking Traditions

"I remember following children, near the train, who were carrying a tray of dough, early in the morning, to the local bakery," recalls Richard Bertinet in an interview with Morocco World News, at the residence of the British ambassador to Morocco, Thomas Reilly.

"They had given the tray of dough to the baker, who had put it away and asked them to come back later," he recounts. Curious, he had gone to knock on the bakery door, after the children had left. "May I buy some bread?" he asked the baker in French. "No, you can’t buy that," the baker replied. "We are preparing this bread for the local population."

The great chef and baker then entered the bakery, but noticed that it was rather a communal oven. "(…) I started talking to him in French, and we had talked for about an hour," he recalls.

For Richard Bertinet, this discovery, made in Marrakech, was fascinating. "The oven was about 400 years old, and each family sending dough did it differently. It was magical," rejoices the winner of the "BBC Food of the Year".

He returns to Morocco, twelve years after this experience. This French baker, who has lived in England since 2004, justified his return to the kingdom for a need for discoveries and others. "Moroccans are so generous. [...] They give so much, but have so little," marvels Bertinet. He refers to his visit to various bakeries and houses in the High Atlas.