Kitchen flux

Following on from this multi-layered past, 21st-century North African cooking is changing again. Short cuts such as pressure cookers, blenders and vacuum-packed warka have followed the oven, introduced relatively recently, but there is now an increasing awareness of diet and nutrition. Moroccan kitchens are being galvanized by Choumicha, a young TV chef whose daily programmes and food magazine promote a kind of ‘Moroccan-lite’ cuisine. Tunisia, with better education, stronger links to France and an indelible passion for poisson, has a naturally healthy, balanced diet, while in Libya the cuisine is the least hallowed and therefore most open to change.