Cuban-born chef Ruben Leon-Acosta brought a taste of the Middle East to The Rookery on Saturday night.

I had been invited for a meal at his pop-up Nomada supper club and lured by the promise of Middle Eastern vegetarian culinary delights, made the trip to Faringdon.

This was Ruben’s third pop-up Nomada supper club. The way it works is that Ruben prepares a menu of food from a different region of the world each time – such as Japan, Korea and Thailand – and serves the meal in a variety of appealing venues around the Cotswolds.

He brings authentic knowledge to the task, being widely travelled and having worked as a professional chef for nearly two decades. His passion for cooking is influenced by his native Cuba, as well as travels to Thailand, Vietnam, Morocco and France – and later, working at some on London’s most famous restaurants.

Ruben first enrolled at cookery schools while on the road - including Bapai Thai in Bangkok, the Red Bridge in Vietnam and La Palmeraie in Marrakech. He then went on to train as a chef at Yotam Ottolenghi’s Islington restaurant and later at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen in Cornwall. He launched his own restaurant, Nomada in Bude, in 2013.

Suffice to say, we are expecting something special. I am particularly pleased to anticipate a meat-free meal, where the plant foods are centre stage, and not simply a side dish or an afterthought.

The Rookery is a quirky coffee shop on the ground floor of a converted coachworks, an appealing mix of bare beams, ornate candelabra and contemporary oil paintings, mismatched furniture and distinctive decorative touches, with a distinctly Bohemian vibe.

The diners were a mixed crowd, but the mere fact that this was a one-off supper club gave us a certain sense of camaraderie.

Daffodils adorned our table for two, and delicious olives, and roasted almonds and pecans, awaited our attention as soon as we were seated. We were served a sweet mint drink and water on arrival.

The meal begins with a mezze platter so share, with a basket of Iranian flatbread. We have become more familiar with mezze platters over recent years, but this was certainly in a different league with a brilliant festival of colours, tastes and textures, including delicious ribbons of pickled cucumber and zingy beetroot, as well as baba ghanoush, a Levantine dish of mashed, smoky aubergine mixed with tahini and olive oil.

The whole platter seemed to sing with fresh herbs, making this a tantalising start to the menu.

The main course was Nomada tagine with couscous from the Maghreb, a region encompassing the countries of North Africa. The menu tells me this dish is of Berber origin, a tagine combining sweet and savoury vegetables, spices and herbs to create a multi-textured dish, and based on the one Ruben made when working at La Palmeraie in Marrakech.

Certainly, it looked delicious when it is served. Upon a bed of couscous was lying half a meltingly soft, baked aubergine, covered with a fragrant, warmly-spiced tagine, topped with a dollop of yoghurt and adorned with a scattering of ruby-red pomegranate seeds.

The unfamiliar combination of flavours, the pop of the pomegranate seeds, the hints of sweet amid the savoury, made this the highlight of the menu for me.

The dessert was light and simple – pineapple carpaccio in orange blossom. Two wafer-thin slices of pineapple and orange, doused in syrup and scattered with petals. The syrup was achingly sweet, a contrast to the acidity of the fresh fruit. The fruit is served with tiny Lebanese biscuits, a kind of soft shortbread, coin-sized and in various flavours.

After the meal I drank a simple mint tea, and enjoy the ambience of the Rookery, now busy with diners enjoying their taste of the Middle East. The meal was pleasingly distinctive and certainly memorable.

The staff have been unfailingly friendly and attentive and give every impression of enjoying this unusual evening as much as we have.

Ruben can be seen mingling with the guests from time to time, and when we have finished dining, asks if we have enjoyed the meal. It may be Korean food next, he suggests.

“For every Pop-Up Nomada Supper Club, I want to ensure that both those in the kitchen and the food lovers coming will be involved in a joint adventure into the world of cooking by drawing on inspiration and influences that crosses borders and experiences,” Ruben said.

The three-course meal costs £35 per person, which is certainly not budget dining, but the entire experience is an occasion – from the interesting venue, to the carefully crafted menu and the quality of the dining.

The next Nomada pop-up Nomada supper club meetings are April 20 and 21 at Miserden Nursery Café, and then at Warwick Hall in Burford.

To book, visit nomadafood.com.