The sofra is the shared table of the Egyptian meal: dishes are not served in succession as "starter-main-dessert" but arranged together in the center, with everyone dipping in using flatbread (eish baladi). Mornings belong to ful and ta'meya; stews and rice dominate the main meal; tea closes and punctuates the day. In the Zewail household, this Egyptian sofra blended with the Levantine dishes of Dema, his wife.

Dried fava beans and roasted cumin are the soul of the popular cuisine of the Nile Delta where Zewail came from. Cumin awakens legumes; the fava bean, a daily staple since ancient Egypt, runs through the entire sofra, from breakfast to street food.