How To Cook Well in Morocco ***New***

Broadcast Details: Wednesday 16th April, 8.30pm

In this new seven part series, Rory O’Connell visits Morocco, one of his favourite countries. This is the first cookery series for RTÉ that has been filmed in Africa.

(New series, programme one)

Wednesday April 16th 2025

RTÉ One

8.30pm

“Since first visiting Marrakech in 1988, I have visited Morocco many times and have been entranced by the place, the people, the food, the sights and sounds; the exotic atmosphere and the new discoveries,” he says.

“To be able to revisit favourite places and discover new ones, and to share those experiences has long been a dream of mine.”

Rory travels from Tangier on the north coast to Essaouira on the Atlantic coast, visiting Chefchaouen, Fez, Marrakech and the Atlas Mountains along the way. 

At the end of each programme, Rory cooks a dish that has been inspired by his travels, capturing a flavour of Morocco, back home in East Cork.

Episode One: Tangier

Rory leaves Spain and takes the short ferry trip across the Straits of Gibraltar.  The city of Tangier is an exciting cultural melting pot and trading hub with a slightly rakish vibe, which has been popular with writers and actors for more than a century. Leaving the ferry, Rory visits the fish market before cooking a fish tagine at Blue Door Cuisine, a cookery school with an all female team which aims to promote cultural exchange through food. 

Rory’s friend Pin Affleck is an Australian who visited Tangier and was bewitched by the place, making it her home. In 2020, Pin founded The Tangier Bureau, a textile company which produces her own contemporary designs usingtraditional hand weaving methods and Rory visits the workshop where the products are made.

At Donabo Gardens Rory has a traditional lunch of harira soup and flatbreads, cooked in a clay oven, with his friends Malika El Alaoui and her husband Paul Belvoir who founded the botanical garden.

Finally, Rory samples some of the street food for which Tangier is famous before heading to the storied Gran Café de Paris where writers such as Tennessee Williams and Samuel Beckett enjoyed watching the world go by.

Back home in Ballycotton, Rory cooks Sardines Tangier Style, marinaded in Chermoula – a herb and spice relish.

(16) How to Cook Well in Morocco presenter Rory O’Connell enjoys a rooftop view in Tangier. (New, ep.one, Wednesday April 16th, RTÉ One)

(16) Rory O’Connell with Malika El Alaoui and Paul Belvoirat Donabo Gardens. How to Cook Well in Morocco.(New, ep.one, Wednesday April 16th, RTÉ
(16)How to Cook Well in Morocco(New series, ep. one, Wednesday April 16th). Presenter Rory with Nouhaïla El Hilali, Blue Door Cuisine cookery s
(16)How to Cook Well in Morocco(New series, ep. one, Wednesday April 16th). Presenter Rory with Nouhaïla El Hilali, Blue Door Cuisine cookery s
How to Cook Well in Morocco presenter Rory O’Connell. New series starting Wednesday April 16th on RTÉ One
How to Cook Well in Morocco presenter Rory O’Connell. New series starting Wednesday April 16th, RTÉ One

       How to Cook Well in Morocco is produced and directed by David Hare for InProduction TV and                                                                                              sponsored by Kerrygold

  Press enquiries: TVPR – Pauline Cronin  087 2629967