Author Tal Smith runs Cape Town’s Sababa with her sister, Nirit Saban. The recipes draw on family roots in Libya, Romania, and Israel, incorporating influences from across the Middle East and the Mediterranean (as well as South Africa). Photography is by Tal’s husband Russell, and the recipes are bright and fresh, easy to make, and easy on the eye.

Walk into Sababa and you step onto a blank canvas with a riot of colour right at its centre. This is the buffet, bright with salads; some stained pink with roast beetroot juice, others seasoned with freshly squeezed lemon or strewn with generous quantities of fresh herbs. Here food is a celebration. Sababa is all about uncomplicated and wholesome food with a Middle Eastern and Mediterranean influence. Food is prepared fresh daily in the Sababa kitchens by sisters Tal and Nirit, and a group of dedicated and passionate chefs who love to cook and "live" food. Using local ingredients and fresh produce, Sababa is full of recipes which anybody could cook at home.

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