La Cave

Morocco's European kitchens trace three distinct lineages. French Morocco, inherited from the Protectorate, runs on bistros and brasseries serving steak frites, duck confit, coquilles Saint-Jacques, plateau de fruits de mer, and a wine list built around French and Moroccan bottles. The best versions in Casablanca and Rabat read like neighbourhood brasseries in Lyon or Paris — short menus, white tablecloths, cheese trolleys, and a maître d'hôtel who actually greets tables.

Italian cooking in Morocco skews Neapolitan for pizza and Roman for pasta. Wood-fired Neapolitan pies with San Marzano tomatoes and fior di latte are a legitimate part of the Moroccan dining map now, especially in Marrakech and Casablanca. Pastas — cacio e pepe, carbonara, gnocchi al pomodoro, seafood linguine — are almost universally handmade in the good places. Italian wine lists and amaros have quietly become part of the upscale Moroccan bar scene as well.

At the fine-dining end, the vocabulary is Mediterranean more than strictly one nation: burrata with local tomatoes, grilled octopus with preserved lemon aioli, lamb with couscous jus, tajine-style braises served in porcelain. The best Moroccan chefs working in this register use the country's ingredients — saffron, argan oil, preserved lemon, sardines, goat, quince — inside a French or Italian technique frame. The tasting menus worth the money do not feel like European cooking imported; they feel like Morocco translated into a second language.