• recipes carefully tested and set out in easy to follow steps
• eighty superb color photographs
• Greek cooking offers much more than Taramosalata and Spanakopita
• more to Turkish cooking than kebabs, eggplant and pilafs
• Lebanese and Syrian cooking covers a wider scope than tahini, tabouleh and kibbi.
• relatively unknown cuisines of other countries of the region; Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Yemen
• nineteen countries have been covered in twelve chapters
• each chapter introduction gives you insight into the food, lifestyle and cooking methods of the area, tempered with snippets of history
• a guide to Middle East ingredients is set out in the glossary
• updated preparation methods in many instances, giving guidance on the use of modern appliances.
• information on how to preserve olives, make cheese, yoghurt and fascinating breads

TESS MALLOS, born in Australia of Greek parents, has known Greek cookery from childhood. It is a natural progression from Greek food to the food of the Middle East as centuries of history have intertwined the cuisines, with each country influencing and being influenced by others.
This book follows her very successful Greek Cookbook, and is the fourth cookbook she has written. Her other books, The Australian Book of Meat Cookery and All Colour Cookbook, show her versatility in the cookery of many nations and her skill in adapting it to her audience.
Tess has worked as a cookery consultant for many years, specializing in recipe development and writing, food preparation for photography, and conducting a cooking segment on an ethnic television program shown throughout Australia. The majority of her work has been involved with the meat industry as consultant to the Australian Meat and Live-stock Corporation, preparing material for both local and overseas distribution for many years.
Brought up in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Sydney, Tess's husband and children have been her most critical and enthusiastic supporters. With two sons and one daughter, Tess claims the modern mother does not have time to instruct her children in the art of cooking according to past traditions, and she sees this book as a way of keeping alive within a different culture the food traditions of a person's roots.
We extend our thanks to Singapore Airlines for flying Tess to the Middle East so that she could carry out the research for this book.