La Maison Arabe

La Maison Arabe started in 1946, when two French women, Helene Sebillon-Larochette and her daughter Suzy, were granted permission by the pasha Thami el Glaoui to open a restaurant in the medina that foreigners could visit. The pasha sent a servant from his own palace to teach them Moroccan cooking, and the place became one of the best known restaurants on the continent before it was ever a hotel. That history still shapes it. The cooking workshops are open to guests and to visitors who are staying elsewhere, which is unusual, and they remain the reason many people come. The house sits by Bab Doukkala, on the quieter northwestern side of the medina. Choose it if you want to leave Marrakech able to cook something from it, rather than only having eaten well.