It’s a family affair at Wanaka’s newest eatery, as the "food-obsessed” Lahoods have set up a cafe to serve the kind of food they love to eat.

Chrissie, Sharon and Paul Lahood are three siblings from a family of ten, joined in their new venture by Paul’s wife Tasha.

"We’re used to having lots of people around,” Chrissie said. "And we have plenty of backup,” Paul added. The siblings have teamed up their complementary skills in hospitality (Paul and Tasha are part-owners of Relishes), accountancy (Sharon was an accountant in Perth) and advertising (Chrissie’s Wellington background) for Big Fig.

Even the name has a family connection. It comes from the huge fig tree in the Lahood’s childhood backyard in Taranaki. The siblings’ mother, Dorothy, made fig jam from the fruit every year, but the young Lahoods didn’t appreciate it much then.

Their mother was "a great cook”, the Lahood siblings said. Dorothy learnt Lebanese food from her mother-in-law, and passed on her "stock standard” Lebanese dishes to her children. Middle-Eastern flavours are therefore a big feature of Big Fig’s menu. The "modern Middle-Eastern” menu is influenced by the east, but "anything goes,” Tasha said.

Expect slow-cooked meats, spiced rotisseried chickens, lots of hot vegetarian dishes, big-flavour salads, stuffed pitas, pastries and baking made in Big Fig’s mini bakery and, of course, good coffee.

"We wanted to make the food we love to eat: tasty, modern, real, good food that’s super accessible.” Chrissie said. "Slow food, served fast.”

Big Fig features a pita oven with a baker working full-time to ensure there is always a pile of warm, fresh pitas. All the food is made from scratch, and is free range and locally-sourced where possible, Chrissie said. "You can come in for a bowl of hot, minty, yoghurty lamb meatballs, a roast harissa-spiced salad, a steamy pita just out of the oven, and it’s all ready for you. You can sit in to eat or take out.”

The Big Fig homage seems likely to compensate for any lack of appreciation the Lahood children had for their mother’s fig jam.

Big Fig, next to the i-SITE Visitor Information Centre on Ardmore Street, opened yesterday (June 24).

PHOTO: Pip O’Regan