In the lead up to the brand new series of Food Safari, beginning Wednesday, 3 December at 7.30pm, Maeve O'Meara gives a sneak peak of what's in store.

Series 3 sees the most diverse group of cuisines we’ve featured to date on Food Safari. It's full of great characters, delicious recipes and clever cooking tips and provides a wonderful insight into how different groups of people celebrate with food.

Every time we voyage out into new culinary worlds, it's as exciting as it must have been for the explorers who ventured forth in their ships a few centuries ago as they sailed across the world.

As we drive into the far suburbs to find a new Ethiopian bakery or Egyptian spice shop, I can’t help thinking what a wealth of culinary talent we have on our doorstep in Australia. I get prickles up the back of my neck stepping into shops or kitchens or homes where I just know we’ll find something delicious and inspiring, something that hasn’t been filmed before, something that our audience is going to love.

We are so blessed to find people with a head full of family recipes and the bravery to cook them up with a camera crew watching every move. It never ceases to amaze me how relaxing the cooking of something familiar can be. Maybe there’s a hypnotic element when you smell a handful of dry spices or fresh herbs hitting warm oil – aromas that take our chefs and cooks back to their childhoods and their mother’s kitchens, to sayings they heard as pots were stirred, bread was kneaded and cakes were baked.

It's joy to be able to capture those moments of remembering, especially when it comes to food. It makes those watching realise that anyone can throw a handful of ingredients together, but to make something the way it has been for generations, to wait until it smells just right or looks just right, to stir it just so, it's that that touches hearts and makes the food special.

We usually take a long time to narrow down what to include in the show. We research for weeks to find just the right people and then from an extensive list of possible dishes from each cuisine, choose five that are most representative and most easily achieved. Sometimes this is agonising as everything sounds yummy and there are often many exceptional cooks to choose between.

It takes about a week to film an episode and it's an intense week of eating and cooking and driving between locations. Like a week-long feast with wonderful people.

What's in store:

South American – Wednesday, 3 December at 7.30pm
From the tango dancing couple who show us how to create the perfect Argentinian asado to the empanada queen and her recipe; from Chilean all purpose salsa to simple Peruvian ceviche (lime marinated fresh fish), plus the secret to making luscious caramel, this is a beautiful colourful episode and a great start to the series.

Egyptian – Wednesday, 10 December at 7.30pm
In this episode we learn how to make true dukkah (the aromatic mix of spices, nuts and seeds) from two experts, discover how easy it is to make a feast from okra and lamb, and see the ancient and treasured national dish called molokhia come together. A belly dancing expert teaches us to make ful medames and we learn to make the Aussie version of Nile perch cooked in clay – barramundi cooked in a tagine (Egypt’s version of the Moroccan tajine). Look out for the easy recipe for the wicked sweet called basbousa.

German – Wednesday, 17 December at 7.30pm
What fun we had meeting German expatriates and filming some of their treasured dishes – pork knuckle cooked with caraway seeds, a hearty comforting lentil soup, incredibly flavoursome marinated beef in red wine and spices, a quick clever cabbage recipe plus an absolutely showstopping wonder of a Black Forest cake – this will be the one you’ll beg to be made for your birthday!

Persian – Wednesday, 24 December at 7.30pm
Elaborate and ancient, delicious and lovingly spiced, we discover how to cook the prized rice dishes of celebration, fragrant with saffron and scattered with nuts and barberries. We also join a crowd for one of the most unusual breakfast dishes on earth, learn how to make slow cooked duck with green herbs, and spend time with one of the top kebab makers.

English – Wednesday, 7 January at 7.30pm
This episode is jam-packed with beloved dishes that range from roast beef and Yorkshire pudding to good old fish and chips; rollmops to summer pudding; pork pies to pickles; and get loads of advice on everything from pub grub to the correct behaviour at an English afternoon tea.

African – Wednesday, 14 January at 7.30pm
A journey into some of the flavours, dishes and ways of eating across the Horn and West Africa. Recipes include a traditional doro wat (a fabulous slow-cooked chicken dish with spices and chillies which starts with a mighty 5 kilos of onions being cooked in a huge pot with no oil or fat); Somalian corn in coconut milk;  the one-pot wonder from Nigeria – joloff rice; some hints on eating with your hands; and the delights of the Ethiopian coffee ceremony.

Syrian – Wednesday, 21 January at 7.30pm
A cuisine full of fresh flavours and clever use of spices. From the marvellous salad called fattoush (made under the Hills Hoist and with herbs just picked from the garden) to a delicious baked minced meat dish with burghul, pine nuts and spices; a wonderful ancient grain called freekeh, and a sensational pistachio baklava.

USA – Wednesday, 28 January at 7.30pm
A journey through some of the regional specialties of North America takes us into the delicious family recipes from chefs and home cooks who whip up crab cakes, cornbread, Southern fried chicken served with grits, a great recipe for ribs and barbecue sauce, and a classic pecan pie.

Jewish – Wednesday, 4 February at 7.30pm
The fascinating world of Jewish food stretches across many cuisines. As well as joining an extended family for their Shabbat feast, we join a number of accomplished home cooks to learn the secrets of favourites including Jewish penicillin (chicken soup) with matzo balls, some slow-cooked beef dishes, and a classic orange and almond cake.

Remember you can get all the recipes right here and watch them again and again. Most weeks, I look up Food Safari recipes at least twice or three times to make them for family and friends – this site really is a great resource for people who love to cook.

Happy eating, cooking and exploring,

Maeve and the Food Safari Team