Exploring the Cultural Significance of Berber Pizza

Exploring the Cultural Significance of Berber Pizza

In this paper, we analyze the culinary feature of Berber Pizza, made for centuries by nomadic Berber tribes in Morocco’s Great South, where it is still prepared and sold. Pizza symbolizes multiculturalism, showcasing its ability to adapt to various culinary traditions while crossing borders. Each country boasts its own pizza specialty, bridging distant worlds and connecting diverse peoples, if only during the tasting experience. This popular dish retains its cultural richness despite commercialization, linking cultures similarly to pasta or hamburgers. Thus, our interest in studying Berber Pizza.

We will explore the cultural ties of Berber Pizza to North Africa, examining its population and food habits. Unlike its Italian counterpart, Berber Pizza lacks a Protected Designation of Origin. Our investigation will assess if this dish merits a PDO within an industrial and commercial context. We aim to demonstrate its distinct Berber identity through the unique ingredients and preparation methods. To achieve this, we interviewed 10 producers and conducted ethnographic observations of the preparation process in 5 homes, revealing its social character that contrasts with Western culinary traditions.

Historical Background

If there is a dish symbolizing the inviting warmth of Berber hospitality, it is definitely pizza: a round cake made of simple ingredients and baked in the family’s woodfire or electric oven for lunch or dinner and eaten when guests drop by at any moment. For this reason, pizza is not only a traditional dish in the Rif region; it has become today’s cultural specialty of this mountainous area in the northernmost part of Morocco. Making pizza in the kitchen has become a culinary custom in the families of the Rif region, drawing on the experience passed down from mothers and grandmothers. To some extent, pizza is a family dish, in the sense that it is prepared in a traditional way for mundane and everyday events, yet it also has a social character, in the sense that it is shared and eaten among family and friends for festive events.

Although Berber pizza is well-known as a traditional dish in Morocco and North Africa, little is known about the origins of pizza in Berber culture. Despite its ingredient wealth, today Berber cuisine is still unfamiliar to the international public. Traditional Berber food is believed to date back to the pre-Islamic era and includes many cultural interactions throughout the centuries from Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan Africa, Arabian, Jewish, and Ottoman influences, for instance. Seeking the origin of pizza in Berber culture means looking for the origins of pizza in its first phases. Berber pizza is thought to be the offspring of the pizza of the Italian settlers who arrived in the Rif region, in Morocco, at the beginning of the 20th century. This pizza was for them a simple and cheap meal, and it was elaborated by the Berber people using their own ingredients. The first time pizza is mentioned in a book by a foreign author is in a well-known collection of stories written in Arabic in the 8th century, and translated into French.

Origins of Berber Cuisine

The Berbers, also known as the Amazighs, are an indigenous ethnic group in North Africa. Berber cuisine is considered a cornerstone of Berber culture and consists mainly of cereals such as barley and wheat. However, the earliest human remains belonging to the Iberomaurusian group were everyday hunters-gatherers, while the Capsians settled down by the Epipaleolithic and engaged in fishing and raising sheep and goat herds. They lived mainly in the Atlas Mountains and adjacent plains and presented typical Mediterranean anthropological characteristics. The Berber diet is substantially based on cereals: bread is the essential part of any meal. Wheat and barley are still the base of Berber cuisine, which is also based on a large range of vegetables, fruit, and dairy, after meat, mainly lamb and goat, have become less consumed. Although considered a popular food, in weddings and religious festivals, a Berber special bread cooked on different types of wood charcoal, tajines filled with meat and vegetables, stews from the Saharan area, and dairy with pastries are compulsory.

During Antiquity, Berber gastronomy was influenced by the ancient Romans who offered luxurious banquets to the Berber leaders. Fishes, olives, cereals, and fruits were constantly traded in between the two populations. Shortly after, invasions by Goths, Vandals, and Byzantines affected the region, but the Berbers continued to eat traditionally. The next stage in the evolution of the culture in the region was with Arab expansion. In fact, the conquest of the Berber kingdom by the Arabs had a strong impact on Berber gastronomy and, even today, mainly in large cities, influences of Arab, Syrian, and Turkish origins have permeated and enriched the traditional culinary practices.

Evolution of Pizza in Berber Culture

Berber cuisine has evolved over time, while retaining its authenticity. Berber pizza, originally called “table flat bread” “Lahmoumenes”, would symbolize all the heavenly graces, consequently corresponding to the seasonal festivals in addition to religious holidays. Dough baking is done in a traditional way pit earth oven with preheated fires of molded mud. It is through this process that this food dough would be, in fact, qualified bread. The greatest merit of this pizza is that it is made in the image of each group of Berber of Algeria according to the geographical environment, the cultural heritage, and the climatic conditions. It is shaped in round, square, triangular, and in all sizes: small, medium, large, individual or family, individual portion, like a sandwich or a snack served hot just out of the earth oven chadek.

Appeared in Algeria, but also in Tunisia, Libya and Morocco, a kind of fire opal of the pizza of all sorts is the origin of what is called the pizza of today’s societies called industrialized. It appears in all international fairs, where the Berber nomadic sedentary exhibit the memories and distinctive essential components of their customs. This differs considerably, in the organization from the Italian pizza, by the stuffing that in no case could be exempt from the tomato sauce, indispensable element to qualify it for “Pizza” in Italy. The name of “Lahmoumen”, differs across Algeria. This flat food dough is called “Marmsoune” in the north, “Mechermel” in the center, and “Berziz” in eastern Algeria. In the region of Aurès, it is called “Lahmen-the man” or “Lahmen-el mouene” in the Kabyli regions. In the Atlantic coast of Kabyli, it is called “Ba’dour” or “Baourme,” which means “Table”.

Culinary Ingredients

3.1. Traditional Ingredients Used

The ingredients of Berber pizza or ‘Berber toasted bread’, as called in English, originally consist of a ‘ta’ with a handmade crust composed of food-selling flours such as sesame, barley or wheat. Traditionally, the stuffing of this ‘Berber toasted bread’ comprises a mix of local aromatic herbs: thyme, origan, saffron, garlic, njuka and ‘adwi’ (a mixture of goat’s and/or sheep’s cream and butter). When there are vegetarian customers, some ‘Berber toasted bread’ makers in the region make stuffing with only local aromatic herbs or using njuka. Those Berber pizzaiolos are distinguished by the great care with which they prepare their artisan stuffing, aware of how significant a place it holds in the final result.

Furthermore, they make a point of using exclusively homemade products, although there are exceptions of pizzaiolos who prepare stuffing with a mixture of commercial plant condiments when they see that homemade stuffing does not sell. These ingredients are mixed together at high temperatures, macerated for fifteen days and kept in a container filled with oil until the time comes to stuff the dough. The traditional goat’s cheese used to stuff ‘Berber toasted bread’ comes in a solid form for at least twenty-four hours or a liquid form, considered the best type.

3.2. Regional Variations of Ingredients

At present, three main ingredients are used for the stuffing in the region: garlic, homemade tuya cheese (either liquid or made beforehand in a solid way) and homemade butter. A product sold commercially under the name ‘poultry spices’, is widely used in stuffing for Berber pizzas. What is sold under the name ‘vegetable bouillon’, is the most preferred product in stuffing for neutral and meatless pizzas. However, there is a hired pizzeola in the region who makes stuffing with local aromatic herbs. His role and the way he prepares stuffing is appreciated. So only customers who really know about these local aromatic herbs demand this pizzaiolo, paying higher prices than customers who appreciate lesser quality stuffing.

Traditional Ingredients Used

Berber pizza is traditionally made and consumed by the Berber people who live in North Africa, especially those living in its mountainous hinterland. The Berbers who live in its coastal areas traditionally consume another dish called “loubia”. The dough of Berber pizza is prepared using flour, water, and salt, which is then filled with various vegetable mixtures, with the addition of butter or olive oil. The dough has the same culinary composition if prepared without filling. The different fillings in this dish give it various names. The round shape of Berber pizza and its thin crust are characteristics of this dish, which is prepared in a traditional way inside communal ovens in the mountainous areas. In these villages, the women knead the dough and prepare the filling, and the men bake it in the communal oven with other traditional dishes.

Berber people traditionally consume this dish on special occasions in the same way they consume loubia, which is for breakfast during the month of Ramadan or for feasts after the month of Ramadan. With the advent of modernity and the development of new life habits, these traditional dishes have become meals offered in restaurants that attract tourists, or they have been transformed to meet the demands of urban areas by a specialization of local dish preparation shops to follow the pace of fast food. The innovation of the Berber pizza name and logo would allow for new sales margins; however, it would remove the authenticity of the dish. On the social level, the latter is at risk of disappearing in its original form, which is directly related to the conditions for the preparation and consumption of these dishes.

Regional Variations of Ingredients

The use of diverse ingredients in the filling and topping of pizzas is a common feature among the Berber people, known by the personalized names of Berber Pizza, which depend on pizza makers, towns, regions, and Berber Groups. The most generalized filling in the cores of the traditional pizzas, by various retail vendors ranging from Essouira to Agadir or around the villages of Some, is a mixture of cooked carrots, roasted and mashed hot chili peppers, onions, and cumin, an element that contributes to flavor. Fine seasoned mutton lard is also used in the cercis of Tiznit. Another customary filling along the coasts includes local salt-dried fish, tomatoes, boiled potatoes, in addition to contemporary ingredients, such as olives or even palm heart.

In the Arabian interior, where Berbers are also known to make pizza, fillings with fresh camels or lamb offal seasoned with cumin, in addition to chickpeas or lentils, are advisable. Finally, the pizza as a ritual (for individuals of sixteen years of age), and therapeutic, edible complement of the plowhead region, mainly inhabited by Saharan Berbers, incorporates, more or less molded motifs determined by local tradition and custom, and incorporates mixtures of smashed on bled camel or steer fat, and fillings of kheil or kheil, in addition to contemporary ingredients, such as olives or even palm heart. In Tunisia, and, in particular, among the Karabisha, the tradition of the preparation and consumption of pizza is also documented with fillings of mashed skates, or chickpeas, only or mixed, seasoned with salt and pepper.

 Preparation Methods

The preparation of Berber pizza is complex, owing to the variety of processes required to create the dish rather than the specific techniques involved. These processes include the preparation of the bread, ensuing toppings, and, finally, the baked product. Berber pizza includes two main components: a round, flat bread traditionally made in house and various topping combinations. The bread, or base of the pizza, is a khobz-like bread or, in some variations, a fat-rich msemmen. Toppings differ by the baker, with Berber pizza shops often providing a choice between a cheese topping seeped within green vegetables and spicy lamb, chicken, or tuna toppings on tomato paste. The topping concoctions are plentiful, though they largely draw on what is known locally. In the southern Moroccan city of Tantan, Berber pizza is not baked by regular bakers or within bakeries but rather by pizzaiolos using highly calorific dips combined with local toppings such as boiled potatoes and spices.

Traditional Berber pizza preparation techniques take advantage of local environmental conditions. In fact, charcoal grilling and stove-assisted baking are often viewed as the traditional Moroccan techniques. Specifics of Berber pizza preparation can actually be heard in Tantan, where pizzaiolos alternate between shouting for customers to come watch and proudly present their products. At least one pizzaiolo openly states that grilled Berber pizza will always outclass a conventional preparation.

The use of attractive, flaunted ingredients does not rank among the particularities of Tantan Berber pizza. What distinguishes the doughs used is both the obligatory use of margarine and sausages to coat the dough before the msemmen folding process and the kneading process which places emphasis on stretching the dough rather than leavening, possibly enhancing texture but not taste. At least one pizzaiolo focuses on including a further addition of hydrogenated fat as a contributor to this dip.

Traditional Cooking Techniques

Berber pizza’s unique flavor highlights the importance of traditional preparation and cooking techniques. For Moroccan nomads, it is necessary to use firewood in the cooking process. Nowadays, using wood-fired ovens to prepare the dough adds an exotic smoky aroma to the Berber pizza. Traditional versions of Berber pizza are oval or circular-shaped topped with either mutton, sheep, goat or beef, seasoned with spices such as saffron, turmeric, cumin, garlic and/or vegetables including onion, potato and/or sauce and olives, placed in underground or aboveground ovens or on baked stones beside the fire.

Dough preparation is very important in determining the style of Berber pizza. There are three main different ways of preparing Berber pizza dough. The first type of dough appears in the Taroudannt region, which is round and thick, made of semolina flour. The second type of dough is western Sahaian, using flour fermented with yeast or sourdough made from fermented whole barley as leavening, to which Moroccan black cumin is added. The abundance of this local agent makes it significant in shaping the uniqueness of western Saharan Berber pizza or “Berber pita”. The third style, from the Tiharine region, is light and thin and much less round, made of soft white unfermented flour. In southern Morocco, Berber pizza is eaten at lunch. However, it is offered as a meal after the main meal of the day, which is dinner. In the Sahara, it is usually offered on Fridays and around religious festivals or weddings.

Modern Adaptations

Traditionally Berber pizza was baked in a hot oil or at a very high temperature in a wood-fired dome with the pizza lying directly on the hot brick floor. Nowadays, about 99% of the pizzas are actually baked more or less like the rest of the bread in the small and big bakeries that are spreading all over the region. These ovens are fueled by natural gas and have an iron plate. In the belly of the furnace, the pizzas are baked in pleasant company, but this boring central heating is less interesting than the real one. Would it not be possible to put back a hot stone in the traditional way? Indeed, like a performance. Except that this requirement is satisfied very rarely. These bakeries deliver pizza for the Berbers who have made it their place when they want to mini-serve pizzas, like restaurant owners who do not want to store it for hours. The dough is dotted with wood ash and seeded after a long, gentle rising. The pizza is baked flat on a stone heated by wood flame at its lower side only, directly on the stone, placed in front of the tongue, in an oven equipped with a concave vault.

With the arrival of the Internet and the philosophy of permanence, it is becoming less and less rare to find about three or four signboards in hotels and restaurants, in the cities of Marrakech and Agadir which state that in this place would serve pizzas prepared and baked in the original way. Taking inspiration from the traditional model, these establishments seek lenders of Berber origin who live in certain neighborhoods, hoping that they can offer this specialty in melting, without realizing why or without realizing the fact that no customer wants to stay for four hours at a table while waiting for the person who manages to do this are they already accustomed not because he is Berber or not Berber, but because he was once a cook in these kitchens.

Cultural Significance

The consumption of Berber pizza, whether during social gatherings or at local Berber cafes, plays an important role in the development and maintenance of social networks. A typical social gathering here consists of friends, neighbors, or family members who have recently come back from work, or are simply feeling bored, tired, or not in the mood for eating home-cooked food. Usually, they gather in a Berber cafe or house, discussing all possible issues related to local, national or international concerns. Sometimes, they exchange jokes, enjoy some television shows, and have some drinks. Hence, sometimes, food is an important event, where people gather, share stories, and talk about serious or contradicting issues related to their lives in particular or to their country in general. In this sense, during these gatherings, food could be easily transformed into a significant cultural text.

Berber pizza has its own lyrics and script present in its taste and shape. It informs us about the people who eat it, their culture, ethnic identity, and social class. Although it did not gain as much fame as other pizza varieties and despite looking more like a pie than a pizza, its performance in terms of texture, flavor, and distinct compositions are worth savoring, coupled with the tap-tap of the Berber baker while handling the big size of the pizzas and cooking session in front of people inside traditional clay ovens. Berber pizza is, above all, a special product tightly related to Berber identity. The distinct variety of ingredients inside the pizza is what makes eating it a memorable culinary experience. Throughout a long day of visits, Bahija offered Berber pizza as a kind of compulsory meal. The atmosphere surrounding its consumption and the way she introduced eating it make it a more-than-perfect vehicle for expressing how it would feel to be Berber for centuries to come: secluded from the rest of the world, left in the cracks of time, and surviving on the compassion of men and women.

 Berber Pizza in Social Gatherings

In addition to its preparation and referral words, the conditions of sharing and consuming a3zla reveal the specific contexts in which it is to be found, whether among a small group or at a larger community gathering of people. For instance, the taste of a3zla prepared for the souar of Idass-Sidi-Rahhal, with its thick layer of dough, is unforgettable in that it is made in a small quantity, sufficient for only two or three families, and its baking is done without the help of a special oven. Requests for this a3zla come almost every year from relatives living in the vicinity or in Europe. It is a dish made for the in-laws, friends, or simply those who ask for it for an occasion, especially when special bread is being baked. It is generally in demand for a marriage celebration but is also in demand for various events of a special nature or when sending a gift to relatives living in the cities. There is another kind of a3zla, also highly appreciated, which is prepared for the funerals of a relative. Leaving on that occasion the usual ritual of barley porridge, the family sends for an a3zla from the people of waad.

Symbolism in Berber Identity

When the dough is baked, its symbolism changes from being considered inedible to the most important component of the pizza that the participant eats. A Berber pizza, as with any traditional icon, acts as a pretext to convey something else. It carries with it a certain language of gestures and a concealed message that combines friendship and sharing. It can be said that the product plays the role of mediator and in doing so makes certain values intentional for those present. It allows the Berbers to celebrate their identity in a manner reminiscent of the sacramental meal. The pizza honors the deceased and reinforces social, interfamily, and inter-ethnic bonds. By continuing to consume it, the Khaloucha practice a kind of identity, which, through time, claims its connection with the Saharan landscape.

The symbolism of Berber pizza speaks of the glory of the ancestors. It contains within its layers of dough, vegetables, and spices all the Berber values related to friendship and sharing that can be emotionally conveyed with family, as well as how it revives famous folk tales associated with Berber Libya. The pizza is the object of ritual exchanges throughout the ceremony, as well as offerings to the deceased. There is always a Berber pizza on the table, which is used both to celebrate the ceremony and to attribute symbolic value to the dish. It is not unusual for the Khaloucha to set aside pieces of dough for the departed or to stick a piece of Berber pizza on the wall before cutting it.

Berber Pizza in Contemporary Society

At present, Berber pizza is no longer limited to the exclusive consumption of the Berber populations. It has become one of the emblematic foods of a region that is increasingly popular with tourists visiting Morocco. However, the relations of proximity or distance with the Berber populations that authorize the consumption of Berber pizza are revisited. In the 1970s, the Berber pizza was an original pizza consumed by a certain category of tourists. It was elaborated or served, at the time, by restaurants or tourist camps located in Ifrane or Michlifen. Then, the Berber pizza was transported to Casablanca, in the restaurants of Berber Marseille. In the coastal cities, the Berber pizza has become one of the usual fast food reimbursed by a more or less strict culinary orthodoxy.

This culinary fusion has led to its commercialization throughout the country. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the simple concept of fast food has expanded with the advent of specialized restaurants. Berber pizza is part of this global trend. Berber pizza is cleverly advertised as an original variant of the Italian pizza. But the development of restaurant services leads to a consumerist drift. In Tiznit, Guelmim and other cities in the region, a number of restaurants offer pizza, Moroccan cakes and Berber pizza in parallel. Unlike the Moroccan cakes, which should be made to order, Berber pizza is generally offered in static mode. The impossibility of diffusion in a purely traditional air-lock leads to a process of hashing authenticity.

Fusion with Other Cuisines

Fusion cuisine is a culinary style characterized by the combination of different elements from two or more distinct culinary traditions. Within the context of Berber pizza, it provides a distinctive opportunity to unite Berber elements with other culinary elements. Throughout this essay, we discussed the incorporation of Berber or North African elements, such as spices, specific ingredients, or preparation techniques, into the fabrication of other kinds of pizza or savory pastries. In this section, we will highlight the incorporation of Italian elements into Berber pizza or its commercial network, thereby promoting the understanding of Berber pizza as part of pizza culture rather than in the frame of North African cuisine.

Berber pizza shops often sell a variety of products, some of which do not correspond to the original preparation of Berber pizza. In addition to Berber pizza, these shops frequently offer kebabs and other Middle Eastern specialties, as well as dishes characteristic of Italian cuisine, including pasta and various kinds of pizza. The relation of Berber pizza shops with Italian cuisine manifests itself in the use of the expression “pizza Berbere” and “pizzas kabyles” or “pizza kabyle,” as well as in the sale of varieties that distinguish themselves from classic Berber pizza only by the substitution of the traditional ingredients with new elements present in classic pizzas, such as tuna or cheese. This transgressive approach is not, however, applied unilaterally: although Berber pizza shops sometimes sell Berber pizza varieties that borrow ingredients characteristic of pizza, it would be inaccurate to define these pizzas as Italian pizzas.

Globalization and Its Impact

In the contemporary context, the Berber community, especially in Morocco, faces many challenges. Economic problems, urbanization, the Westernization of customs, and the influence of the media contribute to distancing the populations from their roots, which makes it imperative that the Berber people strive to perpetuate and safeguard their cultural heritage. Cultural globalization implies the construction of a planetary culture, based on a cultural mixture that reinforces cultural interactions and interdependence, while cultural differentiation is explained by the need of individuals and peoples to reaffirm their cultural identity in the face of the advance of a standard world culture. In this sense, adopting popular dishes with a tradition of multicultural mixing can pave the way for the encounter of two disparate culinary worlds. At the same time, Berber pizzas can represent, in the ‘globalized’ world, a niche or marked product that draws the attention of both insiders and outsiders, which makes it possible to discover and rediscover that different and unique Berber cultural heritage loaded with centuries of history.

This niche culinary product, able to seduce both Berber native customers and other Moroccan and tourist gastronomes, can be considered today as an element of local development that makes it possible to maintain and promote the intangible heritage of the Berber people as a whole, particularly that of the producers who will validate the product through their practice. In this sense, traditional knowledge relates to the development of ecotourism, reproduction, in its specific area, of the ideal of sustainable tourism that promotes cultural exchanges and the desire to discover an authentic culture, the one on the verge of extinction.

Regional Variations of Berber Pizza

Berber Pizza is not just a recipe, but a cultural heritage linking the Amazigh (Berber) people together, although their exact origins remain unknown. Berber Pizza has similar ingredients and shapes across North Africa, properly suited to local tastes and constraints, considering that the use of wild herbs would give Berber Pizzas different tastes according to the area where picked. The pizza dough remains almost the same, based on wheat, barley or corn flour, or even a mix of the three, considered alone for the processing. The dough will rise thanks to the yeast and be spread on a round non-padding shape. The stuffing will be made of different ingredients; a mixture of meat (goat or sheep, minced or cut in small cubes, or lacking, in the fasting time for the Berbers), this stuffing is spiced using local wild herbs, today vegetable oil is generally used instead of the old olive oil, baked on wood-burning local ovens.

7.1. Differences Across North Africa

In Tunisia, for example, where the Berbers are still numerous, the Berber pizza consists of a circular and thin dough like a pancake, filled with oil and topped with a layer of meat cubes or minced meat, without any spices, and cooked in a wood oven. Or is it made in the shape of a long triangle: it is no longer a pancake but two half-cooked thin chocolates shaped into one sandwich.

It’s a little different in Algeria. The Kabylie region is known for its moris pizzas, squares of dough stuffed with a mixture of meat and obligatory red pepper. Moris means “pizzas” in the red pepper dialect. Meat is optional, but tomatoes in the stuffing are very rarely found. The filling can be prepared the day before, whether based on meat or vegetables. They are found in both pizzerias and bakeries.

Differences Across North Africa

Next, we explore regional variations of Berber pizza, starting first with geographical differences and then with cultural influences. Focus shifts to the role of local culture. Some general features are common to all variations. When we consider North African cooking and more generally the cuisines of the Middle East and Mediterranean territories, we often speak of a theme-and-variations model. So many dishes and preparations share a common foundation: flatbreads, various fillings, and toppings that include sauces and spices. Though the regions differ in ingredients, spices, preparation methods, tastes, and other details, we can easily see through to the original idea, the fundamentals if you will.

North African cooked dough with various fillings is a long-standing culinary theme. It involves a range of flatbreads, with their own distinguishing features depending on the shape, color, thickness, and type of flour and leavening used, combined with toppings or fillings that may be vegetarian or involve ground or pieces of meat, fish, or poultry. Because of the shared Mediterranean historical and cultural context, pizza is not limited to one culture or region, but rather varies and adapts to local ingredients and customs. Berber pizza—the quintessential dish of the Berbers—intertwines Berber and Arabic cultures, and therefore the study of variations sheds light on the local culinary landscape as much as on pizza itself. In this section, we first point to geographical differences and then to the influence of other local cultures.

Influence of Local Cultures

The Maghreb region is a great area of confluence of peoples, cultures, and colonial powers that have shaped its history and geography. The cultural interconnectedness of the Berber pizza testifies to the past of its inhabitants. Originating from the West, the Berbers were the first to settle in the region. Then came the young Phoenician maritime merchants who settled in the North. The second phase of colonization was carried out by the Romans who made several areas urban, adding their Latin language to the imposed trade, as well as the Greek influence which left traces in the agriculture of the valleys. Cybele, the mother goddess of the Carthaginians, would be the counterpart of that of the Berbers since the populations of the region also adored her. After Latinization, there was the Arabicization which will durably modify the face of the original populations, replacing Berber and Latin with Arabic. Then came the Islamic religion which succeeded that of Berber paganism which revolted against the Arabs but which in the end will be Arabized more than Islamized. Throughout this long history, Berber cuisine has developed its own particularities while borrowing from those of other peoples and civilizations. Thus, along the coasts of trade and city life, Berber pizzas take on a more Mediterranean character, being adorned with fish, oysters, shellfish, and other cosmopolitan ingredients even if a traditional with meat remains.

In Morocco, the Berbers had no contact with the Moors due to a significant geographical barrier, while the Algerian Berbers incorporated onto their pizzas several of the constituents of the Moorish pizza mainly during the Ottoman period. In Tunisia, it is the Tunisian Jews who were the first to give a Mediterranean touch to Berber pancakes but it is the Berbers who then had the last word: using the sauce used by the Jews to season their fish fritters, they restored the moon with fish garnished with harissa to have blended into the local culinary heritage. Therefore, it can be said that Berber cuisine, through its pizza or otherwise, is the heir to a long history of cultural exchanges.

Berber Pizza in Popular Culture

Berber pizza has not gone unnoticed by the media. It has even been the subject of video documentaries. For instance, in 2013, a specialized channel published an amusing short documentary about Berber pizza prepared by a Berber woman. Titled La Pizza Berbère, it is a filmed interview and a demonstration of how to make Berber pizza in Nebourine village, located near the town of Boulemane, in the north eastern section of the Moroccan Middle Atlas, in the heart of a Berber-speaking area. In this brief documentary, the participant Berber woman talks in French and explains how to prepare this dish. It is an interesting testimony because it was filmed in a village that has not changed, as this village is ranked among the poorest in Morocco. Despite the modest setting of the cooking demonstration, the red pepper and spices that the woman uses to prepare Berber pizza reveal the distinctive flavor enjoyed by those who taste this dish. Furthermore, on November 30, 2015, a channel published a three-minute-long video in which a famous Northern French chef prepares Berber pizza. The chef mentions how surprised he is to have discovered Berber pizza, how flavorful the dish is (due to its red pepper preparation) and how much he appreciates Berber gastronomy.

In addition to these video documentaries, on September 14, 2009, an article titled Pizza: It’s a Small World mentions the stepdaughter of a pizza maker, from whom the author tasted the Berber specialty, as well as a restaurant diner, which serves Berber pizza. This mention has contributed to making the Berber specialty better known and, by extension, Berber cuisine.

 Representation in Media

Berber pizza is present in several documentaries about Morocco, its cities, its people, and their habits. The very first appearance of the term in the media probably comes from the title of a book published in 1921. In addition to being a wide-ranging study that provides theoretical foundations for the subject of marginality in a given market, it contains a description of the “bread” produced and sold by Berbers at the Marrakech market. In this chapter, the term “Berber pizza” is used. Throughout the chapter, the morphological, architectural, and chemical aspects of that product are described, which can in no way be part of the baked doughs selling process mentioned in the previous paragraphs. The description does not relate to the product sold today in Morocco since dough fermentation is a condition of the cooking process dictated by the presence of yeast.

Berber pizzas are mainly represented in their most typical form in a context of culinary literature. Chefs from the Middle Eastern and Western culinary scene revisit aroma and flavor combinations inspired by that dish. In addition, almost all specialized channels in modern cuisine in which celebrities present their gastronomy and/or their culinary tours feature one or more events relating to Berber pizza. Sponsored either by a Moroccan company producing ready-to-cook traditional dishes or by their restaurants, these shoot an exquisite dish that is featured at least once on several seasonal and/or episodic series.

Influence on Culinary Trends

During the last three decades, globalization has shown an inclination toward revamping the so-called “traditional” cuisines and diversifying the present “multicultural” cuisines available in most Western countries through the extraordinarily popular amalgamation of what may be defined as “ethnic trendy foods.” The process of “culinary globalization,” especially in the shape of “ethnic trendy foods,” has inspired a considerable amount of research in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and food studies. Among the most significant accomplishments of this culinary globalization, one can mention such distinctive hybrid foods as pizza, tacos, sushi, and shawarma, which combine many of the traditions of their parents’ cultures and the new culinary traditions in which they emerged, diffused, and evolved over the past few decades. But while these are the most acknowledged ethnic trendy foods that are available in most developed and developing countries, other ethnic trendy foods signal new culinary trends toward cultural hybridization, emerging from less-documented yet distinctive urban culinary contexts, which have collaborations between foreign ethnic groups and, in many cases, first-generation immigrants. This is particularly the case of the Berber culture, whose cuisine, through Berber pizza, is creating culinary bridges beyond the Moroccan communities present in many major Western cities. A significant part of Berber pizza’s identity, created this way, is its association with the culinary industries in urban settings where it is now sold.

Economic Aspects

9.1. Berber Pizza as a Business Model

In the past, Berber pizza was not regarded as an important dish of the Moroccan gastronomy. Today, it is increasingly being able to enter the culinary scene of the country, constituting a source of income for family microbusinesses that offer this dish. For residents of Zaouiat Ahansal (a village in the Bougmez Valley, in the Moroccan High Atlas), this dish has supported them, especially in winter, when it is very difficult to generate income from other activities, such as the reception of tourists in the village. During this season, Berber pizza is the focus of attention for many residents who come to visit this community, as well as for those who take the roads of the Toubkal massif in their quest to reach the highest peak in North Africa. Over the years, several residents of the village recognized Berber pizza as a strong point of attraction.

9.2. Tourism and Culinary Experiences

Currently, it is increasingly common around the world for cities and towns to seek to promote food and its recipes as a way of attracting tourism and creating income-generating experiences for communities engaged in these activities. The main gastronomic movements revolve around the recognition of traditionalities and local culture, with culinary heritage being shared through local products and seasonal food, and in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. Gastronomy in the region has been a major source of attraction by the peoples of the valley, mainly by means of culinary circuits, which promote the production, collection, processing, and preparation of local foods. These culinary circuits help the people of the valley to take advantage of, value, and conserve their culinary traditions. Gastronomy makes it possible to keep alive the ties between people and their history, their culture, and their territory.

Berber Pizza as a Business Model

The elaboration of pizza Berbère constitutes an economic resource and offers a way of occupation for some women settle down around the main road linking the town of Marrakech to the south of the country. With an average selling price of 30 dirhams the piece, the production represents a modest income with regard to the time spent and the economic return. These women bake a pizza Berbère every two hours approximately, generally during the rush hour. We estimated at about ten the number of households trading in this economic niche. This family business is usually managed by women. Three of them belong to the tribe of the Ait Ouirg. They come down to the main road of the south axis of the town of Marrakech with their daughters to sell their pizzas every week during the tourist season. If the quantity of tourist visits decreased in the last two decades, these women keep their activity in the hope of an eventual rebound in the tourism of passage. From our position as a geographer, we support that the hashish pilgrimages between the two poles of by-pass tourism Marrakech – Fez, Merzouga and from the neighbouring special offer, could relaunch these Berber pizzas as a tourist attraction during the slack periods of the excursions organized by the touroperators. Could the guiguin be enough to transform the family business into a semi-professional activity? Probably the answer is yes if a rearguing of the creation of the guiguin was made with all the stakeholders: the agents involved in the special offer who should cooperate to bring tourists to the exit of the valley of Ourika using the mini-buses which circulate the exit of the valley of Ourika. These guiguin need the crowd. The tourists need culinary experiences during their excursions.

Tourism and Culinary Experiences

Berber pizza plays an undisputed role in the cultural landscape of the southern Moroccan deserts. The act of preparing and consuming Berber pizza might also present an unreflected re-emerging tourism trend. Areas where Berber pizza is already well-known among hotel business workers hosting tourists are conducive to culinary experiences. In these areas, tourists can participate in the preparation of Berber pizza, help with the cooking process, and make sandstone fire ovens as well. Other tourism activities available to tourists are painting decorative drawings on pizza dough. Berber pizza preparation can come along with the bad food and alike stories, such as many Berber pizzas being served in one week or even a month, and the unreflected desert rain, desert tourism destroying indigenous societies’ lives’ respective ecology.

The growing demand for tourism in the granary of the Sahara is intended to generate higher income without hurting the people and culture. Touristic cooking—as part of the local desert easy-going culinary experience for ‘foreigners”—may not always be conducted on a ‘family social balance’ base anymore, however. On the contrary, culinary tours sometimes go from hotel to hotel—guests wishing to experience a transition exotic Berber life might not be aware at that moment that they are carrying traditional back and forth family lives back into the tourism-business restaurant domain. While Southern-Moroccan desert Berber pizza staying tourists’ memories often comprise these direct group interactions with Berber pizza makers, the often-delayed tourists’ ‘damages’ might be hard to recover from.

 Challenges Facing Berber Pizza

Berber pizza is becoming each day more popular, in Algeria and beyond its borders. And, like many traditional dishes, it is sometimes subjected to misappropriation. This is the case for our researcher, Abdul al-Majid via Merzoug. “We receive dozens of requests for Berber pizza from various cities. They ask us about the associated Berber culture, it seems that the name is ‘exotic’, and some chefs want to unlock their creativity around our dish. They even send the pasta for the ‘dough’ of this very special pizza and offer to decorate it with any recipe… but this pizza is a Berber culinary specialty. It is not a pizza that we must vulgarize or divert outside the north of Algeria. If we do that, we lose the entire Berber culinary heritage.” To different over-exploited tourist chains, he preferred “a gourmet Berber culinary city that will offer tourists the real taste of Berber pizza,” and access to the best practices of artisans, those who have mastered this kitchen for generations by transmitting their knowledge and know-how.

For him, the first step towards achieving this goal is to train. Merzoug has visited several universities in the region to give training and awareness sessions on this “culinary heritage, an oral, aural and sensory heritage.” He is now trying to convince Berber families to open their kitchens. After all, “the art of Berber pizza is to offer it in three different grills each time for thirty years, and not eat the same one in one area as the one in another.” Then, comes the ‘harmonization’ of these kitchens, during which he will judge the application of the manufacturing specifications. “We can compare it to a maturation of wines. We will have tourists present to tell us what they think of Berber pizza in different locations.”

 Cultural Appropriation

Introduction Examples of cultural diffusion abound in our world. For the most part, these transfers of cultural elements are benevolent and shared equally among the cultures involved. However, it is not rare to find that said exchanges are skewed in favor of the more powerful culture. When one culture simply borrows an aspect of another culture without seeking the knowledge or consent of the latter’s members, or benefiting from such a transfer, cultural appropriation occurs. This is precisely the case with Berber Pizza. Indeed, while Berber Pizza is sometimes glorified as a flagship of ethnic exoticism, it is also at times directed to a clientele detached from the worries of daily life that misses the point of this food’s original function. Distance from the norms of daily life and from the requirement of reproducible labor involved in culture are usually associated with the wealthy classes. Moreover, those who introduced the dish to a new clientele claimed its Berberness while in the process of tastelessly stripping it of its cultural significance, which negated the possibility of direct exchange with its original creators. Controversies surrounding the appropriation of cultural symbols are intensifying right now for several reasons. The agents and victims have become more visible and achieve more autonomy through social networks. Products of popular culture that were once merely consumed or were produced in a secondary manner are being actively created. The unequal power relationship between the different cultures involved is becoming more explicit and increasingly complex, with certain groups able to negotiate a share in the profits generated by appropriation.

Appropriation or celebration? Many curious devotees find Berber Pizza’s deliciousness and visual appeal charming. But the mass popularization of Berber Pizza at the expense of its original meaning is an appropriation act by people who are unattached to the background of this food, making it possibly disrespectful. Hard-melting cheese, large synthetic-looking sausages, and the absence of coriander, pepper, and sometimes meat would make the product unrecognizable to the Berber prospective customers.

 Preservation of Traditions

The remarkable popularity of Berber pizza has led it to increasingly become a transnational dish consumed outside of its geographic and cultural origins, the amazigh in North Africa. As such, with a growing number of companies selling this largely baked dough topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese, often with little thought given to its representation, there is concern that Berber pizza is becoming victim to a general process of culinary colonization. Within the current global culinary environment, Berber pizza is not alone in being subject to appropriation habits: many different peoples’ traditional foods have become mainstream products, incoherently exploited by those not linked to a culture and, often, who are not sensitive towards the symbolism of the food. The production of Berber pizza many believe, “should be a privilege to those who are sensitive to Berber culture… it deserves to be respected. It should not be only tacos. It has to represent a people.” Those who have seen the traditional pizza eaters – at the margins of berber towns and living in tents on the outskirts of human life, hungry… – have a strong message.

While the spread of Berber pizza to other environments and cultural spheres has led to a growing number of firms and brands producing and commercializing it, some companies try to preserve the tradition. The demand for authentic products is on the rise. More and more customers are looking for something more meaningful. People do not just want taste; they want to relive experiences, feel the emotions that characterize this culinary product, part of Berber heritage and pop culture products in the Mediterranean area.

Future of Berber Pizza

It is clear that Berber pizza has a bright future. Indeed, it is on its way to become a main feature of the culinary scene in southern Morocco and is already well-known in big cities. Besides the anthropological interest of its study and practice, Berber pizza has not yet received the attention of Gastronomy, either from its reflection in cookbooks or from its application by professional chefs in their restaurants, which would give it a more yet modern twist. In big cities and outside of Morocco, Berber pizza emerges as a strong candidate to contribute to the de-territorialisation process that Couscous, Harira, Tajines or Mechuis have previously lived, that is, their establishment as a common gastronomical heritage of Mediterranean countries.

The preparation and cooking processes of Berber pizza, both for the dough and for the filling, leave space for unlimited innovation, which would allow different chefs to work on their own style and identity, while respecting the Berber tradition. Everybody is free to choose new and different products, while taking advantage of the tradition, culture, and history of this dish. However, we strongly emphasize that any consideration of new ingredients must respect the original ones in their composition, as well as the properties of the whole dishes, the fillings, and their cooking methods. We also insist that any consideration of their preparation or cooking modes must respect the original one, particularly the cooking in underground stoves. Finally, we think that Berber pizza’s process could be also compliant with the Culinary Co-evolution Sustainable Practices Approach. Indeed, this distaste is based on Biodiversity and Cultural Diversity, which reinforce each other, as the gastronomical identity of a territory relies on its ecological identity. Thus, food and its origins are key factors for its encouragement.

 Innovations in Preparation

Berber pizza is characterized by its unique preparation and cooking style. The process is tailored according to customers’ tastes, and feedback has led to new developments in its preparation. Piecing together various comments and opinions, we found that variants of the dough, unusual fillings, and different baking methods are frequently discussed. However, most of the comments relate to new toppings for the long-forgotten concept of dessert pizzas. These comments are quite recent, spanning less than five years. All of them focus on sweet toppings, including banana or other fruits, honey, chocolate, or almonds. Combined with heated dough, these ingredients can be of interest to customers looking for a change of flavors at any time of day. Because the recommendations refer to preexisting ingredients that come with typical delicious Mediterranean flavors, the novelty factor will probably favor their introduction into pizzerias.

The production of the dough and sauce is beyond this segment because it seems to restrict the ability to offer a varied supply of pizzas. However, pizza makers interested in dessert pizzas can play with shapes, colors, toppings, and dough thickness. Most suggestions in our corpus are about dessert fillings based on spice or dried fruit flavor bombs. If their novel features could attract customers, they could be made available as winter specialties. Seasonality might also influence the producers’ decisions about whether to emphasize the dessert signal of the filling.

 Sustainability Practices

Creating a responsibility assessment framework to identify the main recommendations of Berber pizza Practices is essential to ensure that they follow the principles of recycling, waste reduction, and good hospitality. The Berber pizza Practices combine all the preparation and cooking steps required to prepare Berber pizza, one of the most well-known items of Berber gastronomy. We were inspired by principles to apply it to the Berber pizza Practices and to guide practitioners to slowly shift towards better practices that help them protect their environment.

The proposed criteria for Berber pizza Practices consists of a collection of 7 key criteria: the local sourcing of the ingredients, the nature of the ingredients, the water consumption to prepare pizza, the energy consumption to cook pizza, the tools and equipment used for the preparation steps, the transformation process and the food safety aspect. The Berber pizza currently used by Berber communities are classified into four groups according to four criteria: the classification of pathogenic microorganisms, the classification of spoilage microorganisms, the acidity of the pizza dough, and the cooking temperature of the pizza. Pizza producers have a crucial role in ensuring that the prepared products are of good quality from a microbiological and physicochemical standpoint. However, they also must abide by principles. The guarantees that Berber communities can benefit from in addition to those on a microbiological, physicochemical, or organoleptic level rely on the Berber pizza Practices they follow.

 Conclusion

In this essay, we explored and mapped iconic Berber pizza images from two amateur food blogs written by expatriate Moroccans. We reflected on the cultural cues that these images articulated, as well as the emotions they generated, to engage with how a relatively low-status food such as pizza conveyed elaborate aspects of Berber, Moroccan, and Mediterranean identities. Building on previous studies of Berber pizza, we particularly examined its role in lifestyle-related migration narratives. These narratives, increasingly popular in individualist postmodern societies, articulate longings for a mythical, pre-modern, and pre-globalized home. Berber pizza pictures contributed in three main ways to constructing such longing within the context of the two food blogs. First, they provided sensorial evocations of a mythical return and reconstruction of community. Second, they signaled gastronomic nostalgia for the specificity of Berber civilization. Third, they indexed Mediterranean haunts not yet suffocated by the technification of the tourist experience or by the commodification of place.

In conclusion, we would like to emphasize that, beyond pizzas and visual nostalgia, the social description of cultural variousness and tensions at home, as well as the gastronomic construction of a legacy away from home, are informative elements about postmodern migrations as new constitutive dimensions of the global world. In this sense, the culinary field not only deserves but requires further folkloristic attention, particularly in our ever more globalized postmodern period. While we are now used to immigrant food stalls in most of our large urban centers, there are still many artisanal activities, not to mention home cooking, that are reliant upon the emotional work of nostalgically reconnecting to home through cooking and eating, thus requiring more-than-occasional scholarly interest.