Saudi Gazette

Park Hyatt Jeddah celebrated Moroccan cuisine steeped in a long and rich tradition of flavors at Andalusia last week. Guests embarked on a mesmerizing journey with Park Hyatt Jeddah’s General Manager Ashwini Kumar, who facilitated a unique cooking workshop improvised by Chef Ali and his team of chefs.

The event brought together a diverse group of participants who indulged in Moroccan gastronomy and learned about ‘Tangia’ an urn- or amphora-shaped Moroccan cooking vessel used to prepare a confit-style stew.

“It feels like going back in time,” Jamie Oliver is heard saying in a video playing on a big screen as guests gathered around the chef’s table. “I like to think of a tagine as a sort of stew with attitude,” he said.

The folkloric dish is prepared using Moroccan preserved lemons, chili, cumin, onions, peeled tomatoes, garlic cloves and ghee with lamb meat. The mixture is scooped into the Tangia, sealed and left to cook in an oven for three hours. “It is one of the specialties of Morocco. This along with bread making is a common practice back home,” Chef Ali told Saudi Gazette. “It is common for children to drop off the ingredients at a local bakery, which is hidden away in most alleys and pick it up on the way back,” he said while demonstrating how to seal an urn to a woman participant. Guests prepared their own Tangia, which was left to cook in an outside oven for over the course of three hours.

During this time, men were escorted to Seba, Park Hyatt’s all-male spa and women were taken to Evania for a relaxing experience. The group returned to Andalusia at sunset and indulged in an extravagant Tangia experience for dinner. To sum up the night, Oliver’s words echoed in the background. “What a culture. The food they’re doing here completely blew me away. To step out of my world into this world; what a shock and what a pleasure.”

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