Ahmed Errachidi, a detained chef at Guantánamo, brought love for food to other prisoners
Ahmed Errachidi is a Moroccan-born chef who was working in London on September 11, 2001. Afterwards, he volunteered in Afghanistan up until the night he was stopped at a checkpoint. He was detained and sent to Guantánamo Bay where he was held and tortured for five years. Food was often used as punishment and hunger strikes were common at the base. Errachidi still found a way to bring his love for food to other prisoners—by talking them through how to make their favorite meals using only imagination. Errachidi was released on May 3, 2007, and repatriated to Morocco where he was reunited with his family. Today, they own a restaurant called Cafe Terrasse Boulevard in Tangier. Tim Wild writes about Errachidi’s story in Bon Appetit.
