How Tunisia Made the World Fall in Love with Harissa

Aya Omrani
Oct 2
2 min read

Updated: Oct 6

Bowl of traditional Tunisian harissa with red chili peppers, garlic, and spices on a wooden board.

Harissa was never invented to impress the world.

It began in Tunisian kitchens: peppers dried on rooftops, stone-ground with garlic, caraway, and preserved with olive oil. A daily fire to season couscous, lift a soup, or spread on warm bread. Ordinary, local, necessary.

Yet from these kitchens, it traveled far.

From Home Table to Global Palate

Tunisian families carried harissa with them wherever they went. In Paris, it became a secret ingredient in small bistros run by the diaspora. In Marseille and Lyon, jars of harissa sat next to mustard on grocery shelves. In Berlin, London, and New York, Tunisian restaurants served it without translation. Slowly, cookbooks began to list it by name, not as “spicy paste,” but as harissa.

There was no campaign. No trend. Just continuity: Tunisians cooking the way they always had, and the world developing a taste for it.

Why Harissa Stuck

Many food fads flare and fade. Harissa endured because it carried more than heat. It brought depth; the slow drying of peppers under the Mediterranean sun, the balance of spice with earth, the simplicity of oil preserving life. It tasted like a climate, a rhythm, and a system that worked.

That permanence resonated. Chefs found that it fit in any kitchen. Supermarkets stocked it because demand never stopped. It became an international condiment without losing its Tunisian soul.

Tunisia as Origin

When UNESCO recognized Tunisian harissa as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2022, it confirmed what the world already knew: harissa belongs to a place. Tunisia is that place.

The world may adopt it, but the origin remains singular. Each jar of Tunisian harissa is not just a condiment but a cultural export, proof that Tunisia shapes global taste not through marketing, but through meaning.

More Than a Trend

Harissa didn’t “go viral.” It spread organically, through migration, memory, and trust. This distinction matters. It means Tunisia is not simply part of a global food trend, Tunisia is the root from which that trend grew.

Buying Tunisian harissa is not about following fashion. It’s about tasting continuity, about connecting to a place that has been seasoning life this way for centuries.

The My Chakchouka Connection

At MyChakchouka, we see harissa’s journey as a mirror of Tunisia’s wider story. From pottery to olive wood, from fouta to honey, the pattern repeats: Tunisia creates, the world adopts.

Our role is to make sure the world connects not with diluted copies, but with the true origin, objects and flavors that still carry the system of fairness, rhythm, and dignity that made them endure in the first place.