Crowne Plaza Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya

I love working with people who love what they do. Mark Chira, Executive Chef of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nairobi, is one of those people.

When Shravan and I popped in to arrange the next day’s photo shoot, Mark emerged from the kitchen with a huge grin, eager to get started. “Why wait?” he said, surveying the dining room buzzing with government ministers. “Give me half an hour.”

No sooner had lunch been cleared than dishes started flooding out of the kitchen – a spur-of-the moment challenge for Mark’s young team to whip up their finest stuff. The hotel had opened just a few months before, the brand’s first in Kenya, and had already attracted its fair share of celebs, including Bono and Warren Buffett.

It was easy to see why. Delicate mushroom towers and carrot flowers turned simple vegetables into edible art. Plate after plate of fresh seafood – salmon, scallops, lobster, shrimp – appeared on the lovely veranda, which wraps around a shimmering pool.

For energetic guests, the hotel gym has a juice bar for post-workout refreshment; for the more relaxed, beautiful breakfasts in bed. I just love the light in these shots… I wish all of my mornings started with fresh juice and chocolate pastries.

How about these bar snacks… would you like your cosmo with four kinds of grilled meats, samosas, shrimp, and bacon-wrapped deliciousness? Yes, please!

And the deserts, ah, the desserts. Mark turned out elegant swirls of chocolate, ice cream and fruit faster than we could photograph them. He had won my husband’s heart on a previous shoot with a white-chocolate cup of cream, so he saved that one for last, along with two glasses of champagne for us – a delicious end to a very productive collaboration.