Charles Telfair Institute 

About History and Culture 25 October 2008

Mrs. Touria Prayag at work...

The excitement was palpable. But so was the impatience to get to the outcome. Such were the feelings experienced by our tourism students as they huddled in the Institute kitchen around our Head of Faculty turned into chef-for-one-day. As Mrs. Touria Prayag tried to impart her knowledge of Moroccan history and culture through the various flavours reminiscent of the country of her origin, the students were torn between the excitement of participating in the cooking of dishes they knew nothing about and the eagerness to see how the almonds, prunes, sesame seeds, eggs and various spices were all going to fit in one chicken dish called tagine.

Students cannot wait to taste this delicious tagine...

Though the impatience to finally taste it all overrode the other feelings, the students found nevertheless that topics they otherwise may not have found very exciting have never been as savoury. The discussions about Moroccan traditions, which took place around bread making and the ubiquitous mint tea ceremony, required no note taking. The imagery of it all was unforgettable and thank goodness for the modern mobile phones: the experience was immortalised by everyone.

The finished work of art...

This session marked the beginning of a series of workshops designed to help the students with their research project to investigate food and cooking in three different countries with the aim of updating their food and beverage knowledge.