reservations

Although we might not show an available table at your preferred time, we suggest you call the restaurant at 303.820.2282 to take advantage of possible chef counter seating or last minute cancellations.

events

MOROCCO with JEN JASINSKI

8 DAYS | 7 NIGHTS

April 9 – 16, 2027

James Beard Award winner Jen Jasinski has spent a career finding inspiration across borders. Now Morocco offers a new chapter. Its culinary connections to Spain and the Mediterranean lead us from Marrakech’s spice-filled souks to the High Atlas, where saffron grows and tagines simmer slowly over the fire. Alongside Jen, we’ll cook with local experts, learn techniques carried through generations, and follow those traditions to their source. It’s Jen’s first time in Morocco, making this a journey of genuine discovery for chef and traveler alike.

Long before Jen Jasinski arrives in Morocco, threads of its culinary history have already found their way into her cooking.

At Rioja, the Denver restaurant that helped earn Jen a James Beard Award for Best Chef Southwest, her cooking has long looked toward the Mediterranean. Spain has been a particularly important source of inspiration. Cross the Strait of Gibraltar, though, and familiar ingredients begin telling different stories: saffron and cumin in the souks, preserved lemons stacked on market stalls, tagines slowly concentrating flavor beneath conical clay lids. Centuries of movement between North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula have left their mark on both kitchens.

This April, Jen will encounter the Moroccan side of that conversation firsthand.

In Marrakech, we’ll move through the medina with a local culinary guide before cooking alongside a dada at the Moroccan Culinary Arts Museum. In the High Atlas, a saffron farmer will take us into the cultivation of one of the world’s most prized spices, while another day brings us into the Amizmiz Valley to prepare a Berber tagine with local cooks. Eventually, the landscape changes again as we reach Casablanca and the Atlantic.

Jen is arriving as an accomplished chef, but also as a student. For someone whose cooking has been shaped by travel, a new destination means new questions, techniques, ingredients, and ideas to carry home.

And this time, we get to be there when the inspiration begins.

Click here for more information and sign up

semi-private events
catering

please inquire about our semi-private event space for up to 34 or the availability for the entire restaurant or call 720.738.9199

Rioja is part of Crafted Concepts restaurant group along with Bistro Vendôme and Ultreia and we welcome your private dining event at all of those locations. Please let us know if you have a specific location in mind when submitting an information request or calling our events team.

If you’re interested in the Rioja team catering your next event at your home or office, click here for more information.