Mourad

Starred review from October 17, 2011
Lahlou, chef and owner of the highly acclaimed San Francisco restaurant Aziza, was inspired by a large extended family, most notably his grandfather who fostered a love for food in the stalls of the Moroccan marketplace. Relocated in the U.S., Lahlou attempts to recreate from memory the beloved food of his childhood. By experimenting, he is able to replicate these meals with a twist—his own take on traditional Moroccan dishes that eventually become staples in his restaurant and are highlighted in this worthy collection. For food enthusiasts unfamiliar with Moroccan dishes, Lahlou includes a handy section on key ingredients and staples of the cuisine including balsamic cranberries, pickled green strawberries, preserved lemons, and more. Of special importance is couscous, which gets a chapter unto itself. He explains the culture surrounding this central ingredient, provides a buyer’s guide for those who buy commercially, and offers a lengthy section on how to roll and cook it at home. He also offers a wealth of recipes for appetizers, soups, breads including grilled flatbread and harissa rolls, fish, chicken, and lamb. Appealing side dishes include dry-fried okra with melted tomatoes, leek gratin, salt-roasted potatoes, and parsnip risotto. Lahlou provides an entertaining and appetizing guide to not only Moroccan dishes but the culture of Morocco as well and will introduce many readers to this intensely flavorful cuisine.

October 15, 2011

Lahlou, owner of Michelin-starred San Francisco restaurant Aziza, is a self-taught chef who turned to cooking out of homesickness for his native Morocco. His debut cookbook beautifully captures a culture, philosophy, and cuisine. The first section explains fundamentals including warqa (a pastry similar to phyllo) and hand-rolled couscous. Re-creating Lahlou's flavors takes patience and commitment; to make his Ras el Hanout spice blend, you'll need to gather, toast, grind, and blend 22 separate components. Given its complex recipes, this book will appeal the most to advanced home cooks, culinary professionals, and fans of Lahlou's restaurant. Lahlou's memories paired with Jones's handsome photographs make for evocative travel writing. Highly recommended.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2011
Authentic Moroccan cuisine as interpreted by one of America's up-and-coming young chefs. Many of the book's photos feature the handsome, tattooed author; perhaps he is deserving of such an homage: A self-taught chef who began cooking as a student in America because he was homesick for Morocco, Lahlou now owns the Michelin-starred San Francisco restaurant Aziza. Creating a cuisine he refers to as "New Moroccan," the recipes are unabashedly complicated and ingredient-heavy. As a California chef, the author writes about having to find a middle ground between fresh West Coast fare and the Moroccan propensity for heavy sauces and spices. However, he doesn't make too many allowances for the American pantry. He presents cooks with a text-heavy instruction manual of how to capture the true flavor of Moroccan cuisine, and includes tips for professional chefs as well as websites for ordering ingredients. He is exacting in his approach (he admits to firing chefs for grinding too many spices as a short cut) and goes so far as to offer an entire chapter on hand-rolling couscous. With such sections as "Dude, Preserved Lemons," however, this is far from a stuffy culinary manual. As precious (and precocious) as he may sound, Lahlou's recipes, when followed accurately, are exciting and deliciously new.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2012
Across the centuries, many civilizations have passed over the shores of North Africa. Moroccan cooks have absorbed from each and blended foods from all these traditions to create one of the world's great cuisines. Lahlou brought to his adopted San Francisco home a passion for Moroccan cooking learned at his mother's feet in Marrakesh. Studying for an advanced degree in economics, he found instead a calling to become a restaurateur, and his elegant and intelligent brand of Moroccan cooking took the city by storm. Lahlou begins with seven principles that inform and govern his cooking: spices, preserved lemons, couscous, pastry, harissa, charmoula, and tagine. Lahlou's drive to authenticity and excellence requires not simply roasting and grinding one's own spices but even making couscous from scratch, a challenge to any cook. Lavish photographs throughout the volume only add to the erudition of Lahlou's text.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)