10 essential Ottolenghi recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the best Ottolenghi recipe? ›

From this, Ottolenghi has developed a style of food which is rooted in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean traditions, but which also draws in diverse influences and ingredients from around the world.

Yotam Ottolenghi is the chef-patron of the Ottolenghi group. He is the author of nine best-selling cookery books which have garnered many awards, including the National Book Award for Ottolenghi SIMPLE, which was also selected as best book of the year by the New York Times.

The guy's an omnivore but his recipes are overwhelmingly vegetarian and vegan. His vegetarian (not vegan) cookbook Plenty< spent years near the top of Britain's bestseller lists.

If anything, Mr. Ottolenghi — tall and dapper, with salt-and-pepper hair, half-rim glasses and a penchant for pink-striped button-downs and black sneakers — should be a vegetarian pinup. But here's the rub: he eats meat. Apparently this is enough to discredit him in the eyes of the most devout abstainers.

We cook a fair amount of Ottolenghi recipes at home, because he's one of the regular food writers in our regular newspaper (The Guardian). They are usually fairly simple recipes that focus on a good combination of flavours - even as home cooks, they're not nearly the most complicated things we make.

The only real criticisms heard by the industry about Ottolenghi's earlier books were that that the ingredients lists were too long, and the recipes too complicated. "So Simple was simply genius," says Jane Morrow. Each book is very much a hands-on process, with a core team of long-term collaborators.

Mixed Bean Salad

by Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi. from Jerusalem. Crisp and fragrant, this salad combines lemon, tarragon, capers, garlic, spring onions, coriander and cumin seeds to bring its base of of yellow beans, French beans, and red peppers to life.

So far, his books have sold 5 million copies, and Ottolenghi - although he has never even been awarded a Michelin star and without being considered a great chef - has successfully blended Israeli, Iranian, Turkish, French and, of course, Italian influences to create a genre that is (not overly) elegant, international, ...

Ottolenghi moved to London in 1997, where he initially pursued a Master's degree in Comparative Literature. However, his passion for food led him to the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu, where he trained formally in culinary arts.

How rich is Ottolenghi? ›

Emilio Foa, who was previously CEO of furniture retailer OKA and former CFO of fashion brand Burberry, became the first CEO of Ottolenghi Group in April. The move, Foa claims, allows Ottolenghi to focus on the creative side of the business, while he works on operational logistics, brand growth and marketing strategy.

Honey. Honey is a controversial food for many vegans. Bees do produce it, and it is also a food source in the hive. Because bees produce it, and bees have died to make it, honey is not considered vegan.

Since falafel is prepared with chickpeas, herbs, spices and alliums, it is vegan. However, falafel is sometimes served in wraps which may not be vegan, or with yogurt- or dairy-based sauces, so be sure to seek out vegan-friendly accompaniments.

Culinary career

In 2002, the duo (in collaboration with Noam Bar) founded the eponymous delicatessen Ottolenghi in the Notting Hill district of London.

Yotam Ottolenghi is a cookery writer and chef-patron of the Ottolenghi delis and NOPI restaurant and ROVI. He writes a weekly column in The Guardian's Feast Magazine and a monthly column in The New York Times.