Aneesa Waheed, founder and executive chef of Tara Kitchen, has spent 12 years revolutionizing Moroccan cuisine. With six locations in Tribeca, New York’s Capital Region, Wildwood, NJ, and Hyderabad, India, her contemporary style has made Moroccan food popular. Previously in publishing, Aneesa’s culinary journey began in Morocco, where she fell in love with the cuisine and her future husband, Muntasim Shoiab. While waiting for his U.S. visa, she traveled between New York and Marrakech, deepening her understanding of Moroccan cooking through local connections and exploring traditional methods, ingredients, and flavors. This inspired Tara Kitchen, aiming to make Moroccan cuisine as popular in the U.S. as other international foods by offering flavor-packed dishes with simplified techniques and accessible and authentic ingredients.