Recognition, passion, and technique: the ingredients of Fayçal Bettioui's cuisine, who has chosen to tell the story of his land by returning to cooking in Morocco. Story of the One To Watch Award winner.
The Chef
“Great loves make immense rounds and then return,” goes a famous Venditti song; so, after a full 23 years, Fayçal Bettioui, an internationally recognized chef with a career spent around the world, has returned to his beloved Morocco. Bettioui chose Casablanca - the city where he was born and spent his childhood - as the home of Table 3, his new restaurant and yet another success story. In the restaurant, which opened last June, the Moroccan chef combines ingredients and traditions of his homeland with the rich wealth of technique and experience, so much so that in just one year he was crowned winner of the American Express One To Watch Award as part of the 50 Best Restaurants in the Middle East and North Africa 2025 Fayçal Bettioui explains precisely 5o Best on his website, was just seventeen years old when he flew to the United States to attend biology college, but, even then, the lure of cooking was so strong that in his first month overseas he began working in a few restaurants until he could no longer ignore the deep desire to become a chef. Fayçal decided, therefore, to take hospitality courses, got to work alongside such high-profile names in the kitchen as Thomas Keller at Per Se and the late David Bouley at Bouley and then, at less than 30 years old, opened his first restaurant in Miami.
“At the age of 27, I had the opportunity to open my first restaurant. At that time I had no entrepreneurial spirit. An investor offered me a position as general manager in a new restaurant in Miami, but I declined the offer. When, however, he asked me to become his partner, I decided to put aside all my savings and give it a try. As they say ignorance is a blessing in some cases...I didn't know what I was getting into. It was no longer just a matter of preparing good food and running a service, I had many more things to manage, such as costs, labor and permits, tasks for which no course can prepare you. I realized that I had to adapt and learn quickly. I made many mistakes along the way. New entrepreneurs tend to want to do everything themselves, but this solution is never sustainable. Creating the right team around me and delegating was probably the most important lesson I ever learned. After I sold that restaurant, I opened “FEZ,” also in Miami, my modern interpretation of Moroccan cuisine...I still make mistakes and learn from them, that's the nature of this business, but I think it's important to have mentors and people to turn to for advice, for me Keller and Bouley were, “ he tells Visage du Maroc.
Despite his success, however, Bettioui to progress on his path felt the need for even greater challenges and the next stop could only be the Old Continent. "Miami is my second home, it's where it all started. In 2015 I worked in many famous restaurants and hotels in Miami and even opened two restaurants there, but I needed something more, a challenge. At that time Europe was considered the hub of gastronomy and everyone was inspired by European restaurants and chefs so I decided to move to the Palatinate, the German wine region where my wife is from. The small German village where we were staying was perfectly situated, right on the border with France, where there are magnificent products. Just two days after my arrival in Germany, I happened to pass by an old building where they used to serve fried fish and beer. Jokingly and with a hint of sarcasm, a neighbor asked me if I would be interested in taking it over, since the last owner had died and no one wanted to take over. The place needed some love, it was outdated and I will never forget the smell of cooking oil and stale cigarettes, but it had a soul, I could feel it. A few days later my wife and I signed the papers and, after six weeks of renovation, we opened the doors. The beginnings were difficult: how to go from a fried fish restaurant to a gourmet restaurant? Especially in a small town of 2,000 inhabitants. We worked hard and believed in our concept, and after three years we managed to get on the Michelin guide's radar with the publication of a bib gourmand."
From there it was a short step, and in 2019 for Zur Krone (that was the name of the restaurant) came the coveted Michelin star: “...one of the happiest days of my life. It was great for me and my team to see that all our hard work had paid off. I don't know exactly the criteria for getting a Michelin star, but I do know how obsessed we were with finding the best ingredients and providing the best possible experience for our customers." With the will to pursue the same desire, during Covid, Chef Battioui sensed that it was time to return to his homeland to return the wealth of his knowledge to his homeland. So in the very neighborhood where he had grown up, in 2024, Fayçal opened Table 3 in Casablanca, a restaurant with an original and meaningful name: “In my restaurant ‘Krone’ in Germany, I had a favorite table, table number 3. I am not a superstitious person, but I have habits. Table 3 is my favorite place, my lucky charm, it's where I think, where I write all my menus and where I decide to seat my friends and family, it's my favorite table. “The idea of calling Casablanca's restaurant ‘Table 3’ came from the desire to bring these emotions inside a restaurant, where every table is the number 3,” he confides. The undisputed stars of Table 3's menus are Moroccan products - lots of vegetables and fish - combined with international techniques honed during a career language; cooking styles ranging from French tradition to Japanese precision and minimalism.
"The restaurant is literally 200 meters from the ocean, we are fortunate to have a huge variety of fish and seafood that arrive daily by boat. We work directly with the fishermen. We have our own land and grow about 70 percent of our own produce. This is a big difference from Germany, where the game season is always celebrated. There is one dish that never made it off the menu at Table 3, which is tuna and foie gras. They are both Moroccan: it is our interpretation of surf and turf. I hope that at Table 3 guests feel the same way when they come home...One piece of advice I was given and want to give to anyone who aspires to be a chef is to do what you feel and what your heart tells us...If it doesn't work, you get back up and try something else. At Table 3 I cook what I want to cook and what I want to eat. I have created the restaurant of my dreams and it is constantly evolving... To be named American Express One To Watch as part of the 50 best MENA restaurants of 2025 is amazing, the communication email is now my screensaver, I keep looking at it, as I did when at Zur Krono we got a Michelin star in such a short time. Opening a restaurant “out there in the universe,” not knowing if anyone would notice us was a risk, but in our hearts we knew our effort would pay off. It's really great that such a restaurant in a difficult land like Africa has been recognized,", he confides to The World's 50 Best.
