From Casablanca to Los Angeles

Hicham Foual learned to cook in his family's kitchen in Casablanca, from relatives who had made the same dishes for generations.

He trained formally in Casablanca, then worked as a private chef for royal households and led kitchen teams at hotels in Casablanca and Tunisia. In 2004 he opened his own cooking school. Over the next ten years it trained thousands of cooks, and many of them now work in kitchens around the world.

He moved to Los Angeles in 2011 and started Marrakesh LA as a catering company, cooking Moroccan food the way he learned it, with a few modern touches.

Today he runs the kitchen on Melrose and still oversees every catering event himself.