The arrival of new North African tables, mainly attracting office customers, is quite recent. They give a boost of freshness to Tunisian, Algerian and Moroccan gastronomy in the heart of the capital
Rfissa , rechta , chakhchoukha… On the menu of a new generation of North African restaurants in Paris, couscous and tagines are in the spotlight, now accompanied by a multitude of other less-known dishes to introduce North African cuisine to all her wealth.
While she worked in communications, Katia Barek, 42, made the decision to open in 2021, in the center of Paris, Majouja, an Algerian canteen that only serves lunch, to introduce “the cuisine of [ his childhood”.
“I am part of a generation that was a bit ashamed of its cooking, because people said ‘it smells of spices’, etc. But today, I am proud to have reclaimed my culture, to sell in the 9th arrondissement the scene [doughnuts] that my mother cooked on Sunday afternoons,” says Katia Barek, whose nickname the restaurant bears. given to his mother.
“Our cuisine is part of our heritage, it is a heritage that has been handed down to us in our families, it is important to highlight it,” adds Mustapha Khalis, 52, who founded the Gamila canteen in 2020, a Moroccan restaurant present in three districts.
If North African restaurants have been established in the French capital “since the end of the 19th century “, the arrival of new restaurants attracting mainly an office clientele is quite recent, Patrick Rambourg, a historian specializing in gastronomy, told AFP.
For several years we have been witnessing a new phenomenon, driven by a new generation of restaurateurs who are taking over this North African gastronomy by introducing it to a clientele who only saw it through couscous,” he analyzes.
“Obviously, on the menu, we will have the essential couscous,” confirms Katia Barek, “but we will also have lesser-known traditional dishes like rechta [traditional pasta], and even dishes that we revisit, like mhadjeb [cakes] stuffed with spinach and feta.”
“Above all family cuisine”
Opened in 2018, the Tounsia canteen, located in the 10th arrondissement, also allows you to taste “cuisine which is above all family”, specifies founder Siwar Damak, 34 years old. And extremely varied.
From grilled seabream to Tunisian street food sandwiches, including the surprising octopus couscous – emblematic of Sfax, a port city in eastern Tunisia where the founder is from – the restaurant highlights the “ specificity of Tunisian dishes”.
My mother personally trained the cook so that the octopus couscous in the restaurant was exactly the same as that at home,” she insists.
“We want to allow our customers to feel smells and flavors from home,” underlines Katia Barek, whose restaurant is decorated with “nods to [its] roots”, such as the couscous sieves of its mother.
“I don’t want to fall into folklore either,” says the founder of Majouja, “like the image, we have of what we called ‘oriental restaurants’, with the ululations while pouring tea and all that kind of stuff.”
Defining her restaurant as “traditional and trendy”, she ensures a strong presence on social networks and has more than 46,000 subscribers on Instagram.
Ambition shared by Mustapha Khalis, also very active online. He wants to make the Gamila canteen “more of a destination than a simple restaurant”, by highlighting Moroccan craftsmanship during exhibitions organized there.
“Even if the job of restaurateur is difficult, there is room” to create even more tables, affirms Mustapha Khalis. “We have a very rich and varied cuisine, it’s up to us to highlight it by going beyond the great classics that everyone knows.”
