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Marmiton.org
For 11 years, the Gourmand World Media Awards have been the international Oscars for food and wine books.
You will meet there well known chefs coming from all countries, authors, journalists, publishers…..gathered all together for their passion: cooking.
Meeting with Fatema Hal, author of four cookbooks on the cuisine of Morocco, and creator of the Mansouria Restaurant, 11 rue Faidherbe, 75011 Paris. Tel: 01 43710016
Her last cookbook has received the award for Best Foreign Cuisine Cookbook for The Great Book of Morocco Cuisine, published by Hachette Pratique, with more than 500 recipes.
Christophe Duhamel (CD):
can you tell us a few words about your life?
Fatema Hal (FH) :
I was born in Oujda, in Morocco. They married me very young, and I already had 3 children when 21 years old. Then I continued my studies, first in Arab Literature, then in Ethnology, before working on Women Issues: I was one of the technical advisors in the Government for Minister Yvette Roudy.
After that, I wanted to create my company, and I thought about what I could do. This is how the idea of a restaurant came.
When you open a restaurant, all the others come to learn who you are. You have no right to a mistake, and you have to get to the bottom of things. This is how I discovered my true personality through cooking. Since then, I learn from women in Morocco, I travel and listen… Sitting on the floor, taping, writing notes… You discover how the history of a people comes out through food.
Eating is the opportunity to ask questions on the link to others. If I find in a recipe something I have already eaten in a Chinese restaurant, I tell myself I have a link with China….. You discover what links us to each other. Cooking is one of the last links left to humanity.
CD :
The idea to write a book came later or is it something you had in mind for a long time?
FH :
In my life, nothing is ever calculated. Everything is done by pleasure, emotion, or even wound.
I discovered that much would be lost with the death of those women who cannot read nor write, for their secrets disappear with them. Taking notes and writing down their knowledges and treasure, gives the power to transmit them, and gave the idea of the book.
When foreigners meet you and know you are from Morocco, they talk about couscous. All Morocco culture becomes wrapped into couscous! In the beginning I was upset…. Then I decided I had to go to the end to be provocative, and to write a book on couscous The Book of Couscous plublished by Editions Stock. In 2001 I wrote The Cuisine of Morocco, in the collection Les Tables du Monde, then I was asked to work on a reference book on Morocco cooking. It is the summary of twenty years of work. What I am interested in is to collect recipes, and find those which had disappeared. With women, but also in libraries, on very old documents, sometimes back to the 12th century, sometimes even older.
For me the modern comes through the ancient. Very few people are creators. Some have the talent to do it, such as Ferran Adria. As far as I am concerned, I have over all the curiosity, the love and the passion to find old recipes, and to adapt them to today.
CD :
Do you have other projects? Other Ideas?
FH :
I have just finished a book, which will come out in September: Ramadan, the Cooking of Sharing.
My next project involves all the contributions brought to the western cuisine, from the arab-muslim culture, which the west is inclined to forget. For instance, they forget where do chick peas come from, who introduced coffee to Europe.
The image of Islam may sometimes be negative, but if we talk of positive aspects, it enables us not to lose sight of each other and maintain that link between us.
CD :
When you cook for your friends and family, do you remain traditional or do you innovate?
FH :
Up to now, my goal was to learn, to get the knowhow from my mother, my grand mother, my neighbours, Morocco women, then to travel with it and give it to others. But every self-respecting cook does not always respect the rules and we end up with a change we did not expect, for with one missing ingredient, we find that we interpreted the recipe. Even though I have the chance to meet many great chefs and learn with them, even if I love contemporary cookery, in food I am much more linked to the origins, to the tastes of my childhood. What I look for, is what links me to my origin.
And even though I please myself sometimes with the asthetic side, I love authentic dishes, which tell me their story, whatever cuisine it may be.
CD :
What advice would you give to those who want to diversify their daily food?
FH :
For me, cuisine, like travelling cannot be done by proxy. You must be curious, see how others do it, but it is important to follow your instincts. My only advice is to try to discover, to let yourself be surprised.
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