‘My work still feels like a hobby’
Image: Elvan Ünlü and private property
Fatima El Irari (30) is a food blogger (@uitdekeukenvanfatima) and author. She is married and the mother of three-year-old Yanis.
“A few years ago I was still working full-time in the accounts payable department of a large company. On the weekends I liked to cook and bake, but I never thought of making it my job. I saw that more and more people started posting pictures of their food on Facebook. That seemed fun to me, so I started doing that too. I got more and more likes on that and people asked me for recipes. The number of followers grew, including people I didn’t know at all.
Eight years ago my site went live. The site and the cooking took more and more time for me, so I started working part-time. Shortly after my wedding four years ago, I became pregnant, and I was also approached by a publisher to write a cookbook. Everything suddenly came together and I decided to quit my job. Scary, but it was the best decision ever. My work still feels like a hobby, I never reluctantly step into the kitchen.
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Cooking and baking
My mother taught me to cook and bake. As a child I loved helping her. When visitors came, she would present a home-baked pie or cake. That is part of our Moroccan culture: being hospitable and eating a lot of food. Of course something went wrong when I was just starting out. I wanted to make cupcakes once, but didn’t have a mixer. Then I threw everything in a blender at once. It became a big block of cement, so hard. When cooking you can freestyle and add or omit some things to your own taste, but when baking you have to follow the recipe more closely, otherwise things will go wrong.
Eating with the pot
Many people think that I only share Moroccan recipes. No, like I eat couscous or tagine every day. On my blog I share dishes that we also eat at home. I love stew and casseroles with a crunchy layer of cheese on top. Yanis is also an easy eater, from eight months he has always eaten with the pot. He prefers to eat rice, even for breakfast.
“Like I eat couscous or tagine every day”
I was recently at the beach when a woman came up to me and thanked me for my recipes she had learned to cook with: “You were my lifesaver when I just started living on my own.” I loved that, that’s what you do it for.”
This article appears in Kek Mama 09-2022.
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