Mohamed Ousti is a simple and touching man.  Since January 2006, he is Executive chef at the Hotel Barcelo in Casablanca.  His international experience has made him someone open to the world, especially when it comes to his cooking.

Becoming a chef was not part of his childhood dreams… In the 60s, like most kids of his age, Mohamed Ousti wanted to be an engineer or a movie actor.  He smiles as he tells us of his unforseeable journey. He spent his childhoon in Casablanca where his mother cooked simple dishes, mainly tajines.  After obtaining his baccalaureat, he left for the USA, on his own,  to study computer sciences. But there, through no fault of his own, he was confronted by the difficulties of life and had to work as a waiter and then as a kitchen hand in order to make ends meet.

Today, at the age of 41, he still vividly remembers his beginnings in the kitchen that awoke in him a curiosity and new passion. “I was always asking the cooks questions. Later, I began to buy cookbooks and I would go to different restaurants to experience new flavours.” And so it was only natural that he decided to enrol in the hotel and catering school.  After that, he was just 28 years onld when he opened his own restaurant in the Seattle area, a project that failed as the French cuisine on his menu did not really suit the lifestyle of the locals.  Following this experience and subsequent work in hotels and restaurants in Seattle, Las Vegas and Manhattan, he developed a very personal style of cooking. “As I was far from my roots, I missed the dishes of my country.  Cooking allowed me to rediscover the memories and flavours of home and I began to incorporate Moroccan ingredients into what I was doing over there.” This is how, little by little, he began to cook what he himself calls “fusion”  - cooking with Mediterranean flavours.

Cooking above all else!

However, in 2004, after 24 years on American soil, he decided to return to his homeland with the firm belief that he could bring something positive to a Moroccan clientele.

Cooking for him is a true passion, much more than a trade. He says that it has been a true love affair.  After two years at the Palm Golden Tulip at Dar Bouzaaz, he joined the Barcelo hotel in Casablanca, still dreaming of opening his own restaurant.  He had  a clear idea of what he wanted: “As I like simplicity, I would not open a chic restaurant but rather a family restaurant where children who love pizza would be cmfortable. For their parents, I would offer, salads, meat or fish and pasta.  I would keep with what I love, fusion cisine and above all, everything would be fresh as it was when I was a child. There would be no microwave or freezer”. He retains this rule from his mother and keeps it at the top of his list.  He adds that he is well aware of the fact that Moroccan cuisine belongs to women. The prove is that when he was recently invited to Istanbul and Bilbao to  present Moroccan food, he humbly demanded that a traditional cook go with him as, according to him, it is the woman that puts the taste into Moroccan food. “We men can try to cook like they do but there is always something missing.  We my feel at home in world cuisines, but Moroccan cuisine is handed on from mother to daughter over generations.  They are the only ones who know the secrets of our cooking….” Word of honour as a chef!

QUESTIONS FOR THE CHEF

Did you appreciate good food when you were little?

I grew up in a very simple family.  We ate a tajine every day and enjoyed it as we knew nothing else. I loved my mother’s cooking. It was only much later in the US that I discovered how rich and varied the world of cooking was.

What dish left an indelible impression on you as a child… then as an adult?

When I was a child, my mother would make a delicious couscous.

Afterwards, in 985, at a New York French restaurant called “Lafayette” I tasted a memorable Grand Marnier souffle.  It was a sublime taste with a surprise at the bottom of the dish - a chocolate truffle flavoured with orange.

What does cooking rhyme with for you?

With pleasure and love.  There are chefs who are businessmen and there are those whose motivation is passion. I prefer to serve 50 clients well rather than work on a grand scale and cook so many dishes that you can hardly taste the difference between them.  I love my profession and do my best to ensure that the people who lunch or dine in my restaurant are happy and enjoy the experience.

What do you like to cook in particular?

I like to cook fresh produce, Moroccan ingredients such as spices, red olives, herbs, preserved lemon, aniseed or rosemary.  I also like Asian ingredients… particularly Thai that are a bit like those used in Moroccan cuisine.

What don’t you like to cook?

Dishes that call for flour, eggs or crème fraiche. I am very careful when it comes to carbs, fatty meat and anything high in calories.  For example, I find that the tajine is a very well balanced dish.

And, in your kitchen, are you authoritarian?

No, I treat those who work with me as my students and so am patient with them and understand that they can make mistakes.  I, myself, have learned a lot with the chefs I worked with and so I consider it my duty to transmit my knowledge and passion to my staff.

What was your funniest moment in the kitchen.

When I was in Seattle, one of my colleagues was beating cream and turned up the mixer so high that it took off and poured 12 litres of cream all over us.  Nobody was spared… how we laughed!

Who does the cooking at home?

During the week neither my wife nor I cook as we work too much.  On the weekend we often eat out to the great joy of our son.  But when we invite friends, it is I, of course, who is in the kitchen.

What are your hobbies.

I don’t really have much free time but I do like to hunt and fish.

Tell us of your dreams.

Next year I would like to open my own restaurant, and offer to cook privately for people in their homes. Imagine inviting 30 guests without having to worry about anything. I would offer to cook at the client’s home and to prepare a meal of favourite dishes that would suit his personality.  Nice idea, don’t you think?  Another of the dreams close to my heart is to open a hotel and catering school as I am not happy with any of the ones we currently have.

Myriam Jebbor
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