Reuben cooks: Food is time travel - Reuben Riffel

Food is time travel. Flavours, tastes, smells and textures have the power to transport you back to your childhood, to make you feel the way you did when you first tasted a peach, an orange or a caramelised onion and blue cheese tart. Food and emotion are inextricably interlinked, and nowhereis that more evident than in the recipes in this book.

Thirty-four-year-old South African culinary sensation Reuben Riffel grew up in the humble Groendal and is now one of the country's best chefs. His restaurant, Reuben's, lies in the heart of South Africa's famous winelands in Franschhoek, a beautiful town fast becoming known as one of the world's premier food and wine destinations.

Reuben is an instinctive chef who uses the freshest produce to create dishes that combine the flavours of his childhood with the latest cooking techniques learnt on his travels around the globe's culinary capitals. 'You have to have an open mind in order to experiment and create,' he says. 'When it comes to combining tastes and flavours, smells and shapes, and colours and textures, you never know what new experience might be just around the corner.'