Arome Cassis: An Honest Blend of Food and Music Therapy

Improvising, trusting your instincts, and getting lost in the process.

As a qualified foodie, I’ve always thought of gastronomy as a concept of home and belonging. Creativity, diversity, and heritage are particularly important for local settings where landscape, agriculture, culture, arts, and even hospitality come together.

London-based Egyptian creative Marie is taking initiative to brand and support her unique vision of food. She has married the need for distinction by projecting a strong and unified image of her culture and society. On her Instagram account @aromecassis, she shapes her process of understanding and imagery that comes together when cooking. Her background in music has allowed her to use music as therapy during her cooking creative process strengthening the mind-body connection.

Photo: Courtesy of @aromecassis.

We The Cool: So what exactly do you do for a living?

Marie: I’ve lived in London for seven years now and I created aromecassis about two years ago. At the same time, I’m a music therapist, so I balance both things in my life. Initially, I created it as a way to document my food and share my process with my friends and family. And then, I gradually became more and more interested in imagery, colors, and textures. So even though in the beginning the project was mainly centered on food, there was always the sensory experience. It’s about transmitting the sensory and lifestyle experience and not just about taking pictures of food.

We The Cool: Tell me more about your beginnings with cooking, did you go to a culinary school or was it the time you spent with your family that made you learn?

Marie: I grew up in Cairo and in my family, food played a very important role. It was always for sharing love. Secondly, the woman in my family had a huge impact on my learning of cooking. I grew up spending a lot of time with them in the kitchen at my home, at my grandma’s, and with other family members. It has always been the center place where there was laughter, craziness, and all sort of emotions. I spend a lot of time just watching the process of cooking and learning techniques by watching and trying. It was something we did together back home. And when I moved to London it became a more independent thing where I had to learn how to do it myself and see how I was going to shape it and make it my own. So it was a combination. I didn’t go to a culinary school but I’ve always been fascinated by reading and using my resources and learning from people around me.

Photos: Courtesy of @aromecassis.

We The Cool: I have the impression that many well-known chefs around the world are a little bit skeptical about culinary school assuring that gastronomy schools are very useful in terms of technique but is always the experience, the taste, and the social context that makes you a good cooker. What do you think about this?

Marie: Yeah absolutely and I definitely agree with this. For example, I had a background in music and I made it part of my profession as a music therapist. With cooking, it feels like I want to keep the precious and not that rigid way of thinking about it, so that is why I haven’t leaned toward a culinary school because I really enjoyed the creative process of imagining what was the importance of learning techniques of which I think is fundamental of course.

We The Cool: So how exactly do you merge your food practices with music practices?  

Marie: As you saw in the Spotify playlist in my bio, I’m very interested in sounds and music. When I’m cooking, music is a key element for me, so whether it is going to be a playlist, I am going to listen to or whether it is going to be for focusing on the sounds that the cooking makes. So it’s something I am aware of and that I really appreciate, and I think is something that in the future of aromecassis I would love to reintroduce in a more direct way. I definitely think it has a place, and also it’s an improvisation element of cooking. To me, it goes in pairs with improvisation in cooking. There is so much peace in improvising and not knowing where something is going to end up, trusting your instincts, and getting lost in it. I think both food and music therapy us is something to use for improvisation. 

We The Cool: How would you define the universe of aromecassis?

Marie: I think that if I had to choose one word I would say “honesty”. It is a word that comes into my mind because it’s something I think about consciously. I think it has always been important to me not to overly create what I am doing and to be guided by the creative process and just let things be as they happen. So there is a lot than can be done, and so many tools that are all extremely valuable. I choose to have a sort of genuinely at the center of all. I think that this is something that I never want to go away from.

Photos: Courtesy of @aromecassis.

 
Gina: You mentioned before the role of your family, and especially, the women in it, who have influenced you a lot through this process. What influence does the Egyptian culture have in your recipes and how different it is to be based in such a different country like the UK when creating something?

Marie: I would say that my culture definitely has an impact on my cooking and my identity as a person. I grew up in an Egyptian family and went to a French school, so I grew up in a multicultural environment where things were done not only in one way but in many ways. There was often a case where I had to adapt to languages, food, and music. There was always something new to think about or to be flexible about. So, I think that when I came to London, I thought a lot about my culture and I started cooking for others. I loved to show and introduce them to the dishes that I loved from Egypt. But I also noticed that the availability of ingredients and products was very different, so I think it was a natural thing for me that I had to adapt, which I really enjoyed. It’s key for me to be able to be flexible in the process and not just to recreate things as they are exactly. As much as having authenticity regards the culture, there is so much space for innovation and keeping things in mind and not always having memories of certain flavors and recreating them in a different way. For example, when I went back home to Egypt it was citrous season and on our family farm there were lemons everywhere so when we were cooking there was a lot of that obviously. I came back to London and I worked to recreate those citrous dishes. I think it was really important to adapt and see the value and learning new things, London is very diverse and it has incredible food, so learning this as well, meeting new people from different parts of the world so I think all this richness inspires me in my journey of cooking.

Photo: Courtesy of @aromecassis.

 We The Cool: Any upcoming or exciting projects that you would like to share with us?

Marie: I am starting with my brothers a website for selling online products in collaboration with Egyptian artisans. It is a really exciting project but it is still in the works.

Photos: Courtesy of @aromecassis.