cooking, herbs and spices from Morocco to California

Nina Anakar is a California based cook, gardener, writer, and herbalist with an Amazigh Moroccan and European background. Since 2018, Ziza has been home to her traveling kitchen and garden, where Nina cooks nourishing, culturally rooted recipes as a caterer and private chef.

Nina is inspired by her roots in the healing art of Moroccan cooking, as well as the ancient gardens of the Southern Mediterranean Basin. She believes that tending to plants, seeds, and engaging deeply with the labor of care offer keys to help us remember our role in history and our responsibility to future generations in this time that is ripe for change. As part of her practice, Nina has tended culinary and medicinal gardens in both urban and rural parts of the state, with a deep care for cultural repair and restoration of life on the land. Through the creation of and collaboration with gardens, schools and community organizations, she also facilitates sensory knowledge shares and interactive cultural exchange with the networks she is a part of.

Nina is currently based in the Bay Area and is taking cooking clients and workshop bookings. Her small batch, handcrafted herbal tea and spice blends are available via the online souk (market). Email ziza.alquimia@gmail.com for bookings. Local pop ups and other treats are announced via social media or the newsletter below.