yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Gordon Ramsay Explores the Medina of Fez | Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted


3m read
·Nov 11, 2024

[Music] I'm in Morocco, North Africa, to discover the hidden colony secrets of this incredible country. I've always loved Moroccan food because every bite is steeped in history. Over the centuries, the Arabs, Spanish, Ottomans, and French have all left their mark on the cuisine of the indigenous Berber people.

My journey of discovery begins in Fez, northwest Morocco, the country's culinary capital, located on the edge of the Middle Atlas Mountains. The medina of Fez is one of the oldest walled cities in the world. It feels like I've been transported back in time. Incredible and beautiful, and confusing all the same freaking time, man. So, this place is like a labyrinth. This is crazy! There's over 9 thousand alleyways, and I think I've been down every one. The most confusing maze ever!

I'm supposed to be meeting one of Morocco's finest chefs, Najib Canaan, but finding our rendezvous point is proving trickier than I expected. Okay, I'm pretty sure this is the spot. Oh my God! How are you?

Najib is one of a small band of pioneering female chefs changing the face of Moroccan cuisine. After earning her stripes at a string of Michelin-style establishments across Europe and America, her own restaurant in the heart of the medina is already gaining quite a reputation.

"The first thing I thought about was what would it be like to have a restaurant here with all this product on your doorstep? Look at all this amazing! It's local; this is what people eat. Do you ever get lost down here?"

"You get lost even if you live in here. You get lost."

"It is chilly, it is! I get lost and I used to walk in this medina barefoot, so imagine in perfect barefoot! It's so nice to meet you, thank you."

"Now I'm dying to get really underneath this incredible oasis. Thank you very much. Can you lead the way because I'm useless?"

"Okay, straight up, my God, thank you! This place is crazy."

Tells me this has been a food market since the 9th century. [Music]

"This is the flavors of Morocco! Wow! Like here, just the colors, the colors. Try this one."

"Thank you! You know, cheerless! Are you too whitey for hotness? I understand, I'm too white for hotness!"

"Did you just say that to me? Because I just gave you a chili that is very hot."

"You know, let's focus on this. Yeah, delicious! Pretty good, thank you. Thank you, amazing!"

"Look, look at this neat, man! You like to speak French, way? And what is that?"

"This is the—They are better! I need you to smell. Bloody hell, this woman. Oh, you know the French people think that I invited pillow. Yes, I've made filo, but that's not feeling that I know. There's no phyllo, this is worker."

"Okay, right, okay. It looks like my grandma's curtains. Um, so is it flour and water?"

"You're hilarious! This is water and flour. That is beautiful! I think you should go inside and try that. Yes, and I'm going to correct you because I'm allowed to do that today. Would you tell her I'm a cook in England? Because you look at me like I'm an idiot!"

"You have to stretch it without brushing."

"Bravo! She said it's so wonderful to see you do this!"

Yes! When Najib finally stops laughing at me, I managed to finish my pastry.

"May I stretch it and bring it in here?"

"Yeah, let's go!"

"Wow, Mr. Gordon, mate, awesome, huh? Yeah, you like this more. It's the needles! So now hello, now you have to be careful when it cooks, you gotta bring it up, take it up. Oh man, it's a lot harder than it looks, let me tell you! I'm not very good at being crap at doing something, so I felt a little bit awkward. That was difficult."

"Well, not difficult; it's all about practice!"

Chef Nadjet is a little firecracker! That's how feisty she is! Right now, I feel like a fish out of water.

"Want to see more from my uncharted adventures? Please click here to watch more clips."

More Articles

View All
How to Be a Great Founder with Reid Hoffman (How to Start a Startup 2014: Lecture 13)
So when I looked through the syllabus to this class and thought about what I could possibly add that would be useful in addition to the very skills, one of the things I’ve been thinking about has been how do you think about yourself as a founder? How do y…
5 Ways to Forgive Someone Who Wronged You
Feelings of bitterness and revenge are like heavy stones we carry around on our backs. And if we’re unable or unwilling to throw these stones onto the ground and walk away from them, we’ll not only exhaust ourselves; the load also increases because of new…
Adora Cheung
Hello, um, my name is Justin Khan. I’m one of the partners at YC, and I’m extremely excited to introduce our next speaker, Adora Chung. Uh, Adora is the founder and CEO of Homejoy and one of our top companies that we’ve funded. Um, I’m particularly excit…
15 Traits Of A Weak Person
We all know a weak person is easily influenced by others’ ideas and opinions, but not necessarily by their own. The confidence that comes from knowing you deserve something motivates you to perform the acts and prove your worth, and you exhibit traits tha…
Inside Bill Gates’ 2021 Stock Portfolio
[Music] So Bill Gates, we all know him, we all love him. He is currently the fourth richest person in the whole world, and we know him because these days he uses his wealth to fund the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which does fantastic charity work a…
15 Things You Should Learn from the Greatest Empires’ Mistakes
These Empires conquered, and these Empires fell. Just like we learned from their success stories, yesterday we can learn from their failures today. Every move they made can be scaled down from a rule that reached hundreds of thousands of people across the…