Karim Ben Baba

Coming Up

A brief run as chef-in-residence at 114 Faubourg in Paris (2022) put Karim Ben Baba into a wider field, but the signal was less about duration than about placement: the work was read in a new register, and the precision behind it was noticed. Since 2008, the steadier frame has been La Grande Table Marocaine - Royal Mansour in Marrakech, where the long tenure has defined the public outline of the kitchen. “The menu at La Grande Table Marocaine is designed as a celebration of Moroccan traditional gastronomy, its terroir and flavours.” Karim has said.

Where They Are Now

At Royal Mansour, the present work is built on continuity rather than reset. The room and the menu are aligned to Moroccan traditional gastronomy, with terroir and flavours carrying the weight of the concept. What that produces is a polished setting for a kitchen that keeps tradition in view without flattening it into nostalgia.

Signature

Friday couscous is the clearest expression of the kitchen’s method: a weekly lunchtime ritual built around emblematic Moroccan dishes, and around the habits of hospitality that give those dishes their social meaning. The rest of the signature list stays in the same register — free-range chicken tagine with lemon confit and olives, blue lobster in chermoula, complete couscous with beef cheeks and seven vegetables, and Tangier-style royal sea bream with saffron-infused fennel — each dish carrying a defined regional and aromatic logic rather than chasing novelty.

In Their Words The collaboration here is framed as a meeting between traditional cooking and outside technical perspectives, with chefs such as Hélène Darroze named for the contemporary register they bring. That sits alongside the restaurant’s stated menu logic: a celebration of Moroccan traditional gastronomy, its terroir and flavours.

Honors

Remove Art of Hospitality Award (2026) from Karim Ben Baba’s personal awards; attribute it to La Grande Table Marocaine instead. — La Grande Table Marocaine (restaurant/venue award), not Karim Ben Baba personally. — La Grande Table Marocaine (restaurant/venue award), not Karim Ben Baba personally., Les Grandes Tables du Monde award (2025), and La Liste Leading Restaurants score of 97 points (2025) place Karim Ben Baba’s work in the language of peer recognition, with the awards reading as confirmation of consistency, roomcraft, and kitchen discipline.