In addition to his work as a chef where he notably introduces Moroccan specialties to visitors to Singapore, Mohammed Tazi alias Chef Simo regularly publishes videos on Instagram revisiting certain emblematic dishes of the kingdom.
His love for Moroccan cuisine naturally oriented him towards training in the field of catering. His curiosity for distant lands and cultures led him to Asia where he now works in the restaurant of a famous hotel establishment. Born in Oujda on April 9, 1989 from a family originally from Fez, Mohammed Tazi, alias Chef Simo Tazi, discovered a passion for cooking from an early age.
“My mother, originally from Fez, did everything to cook delicious and above all unforgettable dishes for us. Small and curious, so I used to accompany her to ask her how she prepared these delicacies,” he told Yabiladi. “When she wasn’t home, I loved cooking for her. The kitchen was for me a moment of tranquility, relaxation and reflection,” he adds.
Cooking as a specialty and career
It is this love that pushes him, following having obtained his baccalaureate in experimental sciences, to move towards a center of the Office of vocational training and the promotion of work (OFPPT) to study restoration for one year. . A training that allows him to join the Institute of Hotel and Tourism Technology (ITHT) in Saidia for a diploma, prepared in two years, in catering.
© Provided by Yabiladi
“In the neighborhood where I lived in Oujda, older neighbors had enrolled in catering schools, at a time when the Saidia Marina had just been launched. The station offered opportunities to young people looking for jobs and above all had a future,” he recalls. “The idea appealed to me then and I took the plunge.” His diploma in hand, Simo Tazi then began a quest for a first job abroad.
“Each graduate of our sector embarks on a search for a first job abroad to make a name for themselves and acquire good experience. So, I started looking without managing to get a job. There were only contracts that were expensive for me.”
Mohammed Tazi
He then stayed in Morocco and worked for six years in several hotels in Saidia. It was then that he met, thanks to a cousin, a MRE who wanted to open a Moroccan restaurant in Malaysia. Neither one nor two, he is packing up for the Southeast Asian country. Three years later, Mohammed Tazi met his future wife in Singapore, an island city-state south of Malaysia and decided to settle there.
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A difficult immigration in Malaysia
On his debut in Asia, the chef and father of two children ensures that the integration was not easy. “Malaysia and Singapore are one people in two states. My first days were not easy. In the first, you had to renew your visa every three months, which was restrictive,” he says.
“I worked like this for three months before leaving the country to go to another, bordering one, for two or three days. I had to come back to Malaysia followingwards to renew my residence permit. A soap opera that will last three years.
Mohammed Tazi
In addition to the paperwork, the head chef claims he “didn’t feel stable.” “I might come back to Morocco at any time”. Feelings that will disappear once settled in Singapore.
He explains, in this sense, that Malaysia and Singapore “facilitate the procedures to encourage the work of the population from the Asian continent”. “However, for the others, especially Africans and therefore Moroccans, the two states require a certain level of salary, knowing that here, a company will not offer 4,000 dollars to everyone,” he underlines.
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For Chef Simo, “the only possible solution is to work with international groups and ask to be transferred or to get married and settle there because the immigration laws are very rigid”. “Working beforehand in another Asian country can facilitate immigration to Singapore,” he adds.
Links with Morocco strengthened by the dishes
The ties between Mohammed Tazi and Morocco, his country of origin, have been further strengthened during the Covid-19 pandemic. “In the establishment where I work, we were divided into four groups. Each group worked one week for a rest of three weeks. It lasted more than a year and a half,” he explains. “With confinement, spending three weeks at home seemed like a nightmare. I was very bored to be honest. So I cooked by relieving my wife of this task.
It was then that he began to take pictures of the dishes he was preparing to put them in Story on Instagram. “People gradually started to take an interest in my dishes, asking me for advice on the ingredients or the preparation. With the enthusiasm, I said to myself that it was necessary to shoot videos to share them”, he explains once more. And to specify that his videos “are neither sponsored by third parties nor monetized” and “are only posted out of love for cooking and dishes”.
© Provided by Yabiladi
Despite the thousands of kilometres, his attachment to his native land is reflected in the care he takes to promote the country’s culinary heritage. Mohammed Tazi explains with simplicity that “love for the country increases when you leave it”. “There are very simple things in Morocco that you only notice once abroad. This is how I keep good ties with my country. Nothing has changed even though I left him ten years ago. Whenever the opportunity arises, I go back and each time it’s as if I had never left,” he concludes.