Um Mami by Melting Pot sets its sights on empowering Morocco’s culinary future

Um Mami Food and Culinary Center in Morocco is a play on words – in Arabic ‘Um’ means ’daughter’ and ‘Mami ’ means ‘grandmother’ – paying homage to Moroccan cooking traditions that have been passed down, generation by generation, for centuries. But it’s also the essence of deliciousness, or to use another term, ‘umami’.

As a country greatly admired for its cuisine, Morocco’s potential on the global culinary stage is huge. Yet more than a third of its young population neither works, nor has access to education. The opportunity to create deeply fulfilling jobs is immense.

In 2020, Um Mami partnered with the Danish-Arab Partnership Programme (DAPP, dapp.dk), financed by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which strives to promote human rights, equality and meaningful employment opportunities for young people across the Middle East and North Africa. In close collaboration with Oxfam Denmark, we launched a pilot project to establish a Food and Culinary Center with the goal of promoting job creation in Morocco by nurturing and inspiring a new generation of chefs and culinary entrepreneurs.

In 2022, we partnered with the Danish NGO, Plan Børnefonden, to further development and strengthen the Food and Culinary Center, in the belief that a promising culinary future for the country’s youth is emerging and that they will contribute significantly to the growth of Morocco’s vibrant food industry.