• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Friday, March 5, 2021
REPORTING MOROCCO REPORTING MOROCCO
REPORTING MOROCCO REPORTING MOROCCO
  • Home
  • Nation
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Environment
    • Education
  • Art & Culture
    • Food
    • Art
    • Music
    • Fashion
  • Religion
  • Health & Science
    • Public Health
  • Our Student Journalists
    • Spring 2020
      • Anna Mitchell
      • Antonia Knox
      • Aviva Rosenberg
      • Corrine Schmaedeke
      • Elijah McKee
      • Gari De Ramos
      • Harrison Daley
      • Jessica Blough
      • Kathryn Jefferson
      • Marlon Hyde
      • Nejra Kravic
      • Solaine Carter
    • In Other Media
  • Alumni
    • Fall 2019
      • Rachel Berets
      • Chloe Chaobal
      • Ella Feldman
      • Ryley Graham
      • Georgia Knoles
      • Patrick Linehan
      • Mimi Miyamoto
      • Stella Shi
      • Bella Staal
      • N’Kaela Webster
      • Ellie Zimmerman
    • Spring 2019
      • Alexis Broadnax
      • Amelia Keesler
      • Anton Delgado
      • Austin Corona
      • Catherine Brewer
      • Chris Dillon
      • Giulia Villanueva
      • Lauren Goldfarb
      • Lexi Reich
      • Mac Dressman
      • Malaya Nordyke
      • Margaret Dols
      • Mary Bernard
      • Maya London-Southern
      • Michelle Li
      • Shelby Kluver
      • Stephen Higgins
      • Viviana Prado-Núñez
    • Fall 2018
      • Alexandria Saurman
      • Alexis Miller
      • Brionne Frazier
      • Jabari Richardson
      • Jordyn Congelli
      • Kylie Wilder
      • Megan O’Herron
      • Sam Metivier
      • Zoe Buchli
    • Spring 2018
      • Alyssa Kann
      • Anna Bongardino
      • Carrie Boike
      • Emily Vega
      • Erika Riley
      • Hadley Stack
      • Joseph Held
      • Matthew McDermott
      • Molly Keisman
      • Najah Mateen
      • Olivia Lewis
      • Ryan Terhune
    • Fall 2017
      • Andrew Seger
      • Claire Franksen
      • Clara Neill
      • Jeanette Lam
      • Justin Cates
      • Katie Koontz
      • Lara Korte
      • Lars Brady
      • Lars Brady
      • Livvy Fore
      • Olivia Kohn
      • Rita Carmona
      • Sophie Nunnally
      • Sophie Pollock
    • Spring 2017
      • Allie Merola
      • Anisha Wilson
      • Connor Shannon
      • David Fuchs
      • Deborah Katsuva
      • Evan Popp
      • Katharine Milbradt
      • Kesley Cochran
      • Mary Chen
      • Mary Mathis
      • Max Jodoin
      • Micaela Harris
      • Perry DeMarche
      • Regan Reeck
      • Sophie Alexander
      • Tamara Matheson
      • Zakiyyah Maryam
    • Fall 2016
      • Celia Heudebourg
      • DeJah Ault
      • Dewborah Honore
      • Jessica Lartigue
      • Margaret Britton-Mehlisch
      • Phoebe Osterhout
      • Regan Reek
      • Shirley Chan
      • Sonia Mohammadzadah
      • Taylor Burris
    • Spring 2016
      • Amelia Palacios
      • Becca Dewosky
      • Cannon Sullivan
      • Danielle Douglas
      • Daria Etezadi
      • Elaina Zachos
      • Julia Cabrera
      • Kainoelani Lee
      • Kelsey Hanson
      • Mackenzie Ritter
      • Madeline Hughes
      • Molly Mulroy
      • Oly Zayac
      • Savin Mattozzi
      • Shiloh Frederick
      • Viviane Feldman
      • Wesley Lickus
    • Fall 2015
      • Allegra Thomas
      • Christopher Lowell
      • Darren Spirk
      • Hannah Steinkopf-Frank
      • Jennifer Kwon
      • Kayla Dwyer
      • Mitchell McCluskey
      • Nora Kipniss
      • Rob Dozier
      • Rob Dozier
      • Simneon Lancaster
      • Trey Strange
    • Spring 2015
      • Ben Bartenstein
      • Brennan Weiss
      • Emma Sikora Paulus
      • Evan Verploegh
      • Evin Billington
      • Hayden Crowell
      • Julia Barstow
      • Julia Levine
      • Kacie Graves
      • Kiannah Sepeda-Miller
      • La’akea Kaufman
      • Mackenzie Martin
      • Mary Byrne
      • Paris Alston
      • Samantha Weiss
      • Sofie Tapia
      • William Matsuda
    • 2014 Students
    • 2013 Students

A Medina Patisserie Tells a Story of Generations

November 27, 2019 By Bella Staal

by ELLLIE ZIMMERMAN

RABAT, Morocco  — On a typically sunny Friday in September, Rabat’s Mohammed V Avenue performs an ancient ritual. The street is slowly coming to life after the quiet of the lunch and prayer hours, in anticipation of the busy workday. Shopkeepers sweep their doorsteps and open their stalls. Couscous-filled shoppers begin to populate the street. Mohammed Ben Kasem participates in the ceremony as he arrives to oversee the scene at his French-style cake shop Patisserie Saïd, exactly as his father and grandfather did every day for decades before him. 

Just as in decades past, Patisserie Saïd presents customers with a glass case filled with a dazzling array of carefully frosted mille-feuilles, rich opera cakes, and roulades with impeccable cream swirls. Ben Kasem is more of a businessman than a baker but knows enough of the family trade to ensure the cakes always meet quality standards. The cakes are baked fresh every day by a separate baking staff off-site (the shop itself, more of a stall than a proper storefront in its current form, is too small to house a fully equipped kitchen) and delivered to the medina, where vendors dole out slices of sweets for four dirhams apiece.

 “All our ingredients come from here in Morocco,” Ben Kasem said with pride. 

Ben Kasem is the third-generation owner of Patisserie Saïd, and not much has changed since the day his grandfather set up shop in the early 1900s—he’s even working out of the same spot near the southern entrance to the medina. 

“We make the cakes identical” to the ones his grandfather originally baked, Ben Kasem said in French. “We’ve added four or five different cakes, but the others have always been exactly like this.” 

Patisserie Saïd is nothing if not consistent. The bakery’s clientele has come back year after year to enjoy their favorite sweets, so there is no need for fancy improvements or gimmicks. There is no rotating menu, no promotional offers, just the same quality that medina dwellers can depend on.

The bakery is medina street-style, meaning it has no chairs and is often crowded. To get their hands on a Ben Kasem creation, customers work their way up to the case through crowds of shoppers and hawkers. This requires some sharp elbows at peak times. They then exchange four dirhams for a slice and park firmly at the attached shelf to savor their treats. 

Today, visitors will find the bakery in a temporary stall on Mohammed V Avenue, about 100 feet from the Marché Central, Patisserie Saïd’s usual home. The Marché is currently under construction as part of a United Nations-sponsored restoration of the medina launched in 2014. Ben Kasem expects the bakery to be back in a more permanent space in May 2020. He doesn’t gripe about the construction or the loss of the original storefront, but rather speaks of it with excitement, jokingly calling the old building “ancient.” No matter what space it fills, the soul of Patisserie Saïd has remained constant, and Ben Kasem sees no reason for that to change.

When asked how his grandfather learned to bake, Ben Kasem threw up his hands and said simply, “He learned!” After a moment of thought, he added, “He learned from the French.” The French influence on Patisserie Saïd is unmistakable. Instead of the honeyed briouat pastries and nutty cookies that fill many of Saïd’s neighbors’ display cases, Ben Kasem’s grandfather staked his ground in bringing traditional French baking to the medina. Years later, this vestige of the French presence in Morocco continues to flourish.  

Running the family shop wasn’t always the plan for Ben Kasem. In fact, this is only his fourth year at the helm of Patisserie Saïd. His main career has been driving in various capacities, operating trucks in France and taxis in Brooklyn. He found that to be a perfectly fulfilling career, but when his father started to consider retirement, Ben Kasem returned home to join the business. Father and son worked side by side for a few years before the elder Ben Kasem took a step back, confident that he had passed the tricks of the trade on to the next generation. 

The line might stop here, though. Ben Kasem’s son has no interest in business–cakes or no cakes. Instead, he is pursuing a degree in medicine, although devoted customers should take heart in Ben Kasem’s midlife change of course. It’s easy to tell how dear to Ben Kasem the place is. Describing his accession to the Patisserie Saïd throne, he declared with gravity, “This makes four years since I received the torch. Now I’m responsible.”  

Food

Reader Interactions

Featured

Photo of the Day: February 21, 2016

Protesters gather in front of Parliament to demand social reform and to celebrate the 5th … Read Full Article

Featured

News Roundup: Stockpiling Green Tea; US Sale of Arms; Journalist’s Trial

Photo credit: Morocco World News March 5, 2020 Three stories you need to read today. Compiled … Read Full Article

Featured

News Round-up: Moroccans against Trump’s “Peace Plan”; Contracted Teacher Strike; New Highway Underway

An estimated 10,000 Moroccans marched down Rabat's city center to demonstrate support for Palestine … Read Full Article

Primary Sidebar

FOLLOW REPORTING MOROCCO

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Handprints in Oudayas

More Featured Photos

ALUMNI JOURNALISTS

Alumni Spotlight: Ben Bartenstein

SIT Students Visit Alum Perry DeMarche at Dar Si Hmad

Moroccan families mourn drowning of 45 who used risky migration route to Spain

Photo by WBUR

A reporter for Boston’s unheard voices: Spotlight on MOJ alum Paris Alston

More Alumni Posts

The Program

Reporting Morocco is produced by U.S. university students on an SIT Study Abroad program called Morocco: Field Studies in Journalism and New Media. They are mentored by veteran journalists from The New York Times, The Associated Press, and Round Earth Media in a program applying technology and global consciousness to produce high-impact journalism on vital social issues.

Reporting Morocco strives to be a reliable resource for news and information about Morocco.

Learn More

SIT Logo

A pioneer in experiential, field-based study abroad, SIT (founded as the School for International Training) provides more than 60 semester and summer programs for undergraduate students in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, as well as comparative programs in multiple locations.

Morocco: Field Studies in Journalism and New Media is a program of SIT Study Abroad.

  • The World Learning Inc. Family:
  • experiment.org
  • https://studyabroad.sit.edu
  • worldlearning.org

Footer

  • Academics
  • Admissions
  • Apply
  • Alumni
  • Alumni Connect
  • Give
  • Media Center
  • Request Info
  • SIT Stories
  • School for International Training

    1 Kipling Road • Brattleboro, VT 05302 • 802 257-7751 • 800 257-7751 (toll-free in the US)
    SIT is a private nonprofit institution of higher education.

  • Explore SIT Graduate Institute

    © Copyright World Learning, Inc.