Dar Fatima
A portrait of Fatima Belkacem, pastry chef · founder — London.
Fatima learned to fold makroud at her grandmother Yamina's kitchen table in the lower Casbah, between the Friday market and the courtyard fountain. Sixty years later, she still folds them the same way — by feel, never by clock — in an atelier of five women on rue Larbi Ben M'hidi.
"If I cannot smell the orange blossom from the courtyard, I start the batch again."
A few quiet rules in the kitchen.
A pastry should taste of the hand that made it. Nothing in our recipes hides behind sugar; we work with three ingredients at a time and let them speak.
A recipe passed by hand.
Yamina Belkacem opened the first family kitchen in 1962. Her daughter Khadija took it on in 1989. Fatima — the third generation — kept the recipe and slowly added one of her own each year.
From the hand,
to the box.
A small atelier of five women. Around 80 boxes leave the kitchen each week — never more.
- 01
Semolina rested overnight in clarified butter and a little orange-blossom water
- 02
Date paste cooked low and slow with a single cinnamon stick
- 03
Each diamond folded by hand — no moulds, no presses
- 04
Oven-baked at low heat, then bathed briefly in warm honey syrup
- 05
Cooled on cedar boards before hand-packing into the gift tin
Every ingredient has an address.
Semolina from a small mill in Sidi Bel Abbès, Deglet Nour dates from Tolga, orange blossom water distilled in Blida. We have known every supplier by name for at least a decade.
What this house is known for.
Bestseller
Wedding Pastry Selection
par dar fatimaHave a question for Fatima?
Custom orders, gift notes, allergens, a wedding tray — write directly. Fatima answers herself.
Write to the kitchen