Everything You Need To Know About Chef Yotam Ottolenghi

Israeli-born chef and food writer Yotam Ottolenghi is one of Britain's foremost culinary icons. In a career that has spanned newspaper columns, award-winning cookbooks, and numerous restaurants, Ottolenghi has done more than just inspire food-minded Britons — he has irrevocably altered the culinary landscape they inhabit.

Ottolenghi hasn't managed this alone. A team of expert chefs and business partners work together under the Ottolenghi banner, serving customers in his restaurants and inventing new dishes in the hallowed Ottolenghi Test Kitchen. Many of these individuals have gone on to launch successful restaurants of their own, further populating the nation with more brilliantly colorful, flavorful, and seasonal food.

While the impact of his food has been great, Ottolenghi's demeanor is famously understated. Perhaps because of this, Ottolenghi does not have the Hollywood-style fame associated with so many of today's celebrity chefs. This is all the more reason to celebrate his fantastic career. 

Yotam Ottolenghi was born and raised in Israel – Jerusalem, to be exact. It was his mother country — and the blending of both Israeli and Arabic cultures — that proved to be Ottolenghi's first and most lasting culinary influence: "I was living in Tel Aviv and my boyfriend and I were near a really great fruit and vegetable market — Carmel Market, which is in the center of Tel Aviv ... I just loved the produce. I would just walk there and see these incredible mountains of vegetables and cheese and herbs. It was just so seductive. And so the process of grabbing all of those things and playing with them, making things from scratch — I just found it so amazingly powerful," (via Penguin Books).

This inspiration has been evident in Ottolenghi's distinct culinary style. Instead of his cooking being delineated by singular cuisines, it is defined by its beautiful use of fresh produce and cooking methods that amplify the food's natural flavors. This is exemplified by some of his most enduring recipes, including the famous butternut squash and couscous salad.

Another telltale sign that Ottolenghi grew up in the Middle East is his persistent use of eggplant. This he credits to the Arabic cultures that influenced his childhood. These eggplant-based recipes were one of his first culinary loves, and have remained a great source of inspiration throughout his career.

A great deal of Yotam Ottolenghi's success is attributable to one of his closest business partners, Sami Tamimi. Originally Ottolenghi's co-worker at Baker & Spice, Tamimi rapidly became his friend, and subsequently, a business partner. Though not named above the door, Tamimi has a huge say over what is served in the Ottolenghi restaurants thanks to his status as executive chef.

On the cookbook side of things, Tamimi's influence can be seen most clearly in "Jerusalem." An exploration of the city where both of them were raised, "Jerusalem" combines Tamimi's Palestinian heritage with Ottolenghi's Israeli roots. Speaking of the creation process Tamimi said: "We'd sit down and think about little things we'd done as children — things associated with a recipe. We'd tell stories. We'd compare the smells and tastes and sounds that were our memories of food. It was mind-blowing, for me, to be re-created through that book," (via The New Yorker). As a co-author Tamimi rightfully received a lot of praise for the cookbook. He has also been involved in many other iconic Ottolenghi cookbooks.

Despite having been born on different sides of the incredibly divisive Israel-Palestine conflict, Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi share a similar dismay at the ongoing violence. The two of them also believe that their friendship demonstrates the power of collaboration between Palestinians and Israelis. Ottolenghi spoke on this matter to wbur: "The recipes that we've published have inspired people to cook Mediterranean food, to cook Middle Eastern food, and see us as kind of symbols of collaboration that unfortunately doesn't exist on the ground. So I think, without ever intending for this to happen, it has happened, which is wonderful ... Jerusalem is a tormented place in many senses. It's a place that is unfortunately in conflict. There are two people living side-by-side and not getting on at all. Now, we — Sam and I — are trying to make the most out of it. So out of the conflict and out of the intensity of the emotions comes some amazing foods."

The pair also acknowledge that the two cuisines, which are often spoken of separately, are nearly impossible to untwine, especially in the city of Jerusalem. If the violence is to finally abate, the city must accept that Israeli and Palestinian culture and cuisine will always be intimately connected and that there are more similarities than differences. And while both Tamimi and Ottolenghi do not class themselves as political, their food, whether they like it or not, most definitely is.

Although his great success might suggest otherwise, Yotam Ottolenghi did not plan on being a chef. Instead, his childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood were dedicated to academia. Ottolenghi's bachelor's degree came from Tel Aviv University, as did his Masters in comparative literature and philosophy. Upon completing his coursework, Ottolenghi had a distinct change of heart, turning away from academia and enrolling himself in the London outpost of the world-famous culinary school Le Cordon Bleu.

Speaking to Time Out, Ottolenghi recalled these early experiences: "It was a formative period for me. I hadn't done any professional cooking and this was the moment I embarked on this career and decided to get my training at Le Cordon Bleu. They were long days and we used to go to a pub across the street afterwards. We'd sit outside the pub, have beers, and smoke a lot." Here, Ottolenghi learned many skills which continue to shape his career today. Among these are a range of pastry skills that Ottolenghi both cherishes and utilizes regularly.

Despite his in-depth understanding of various cuisines, undeniable passion for food, and a set of professional skills honed at one of the world's foremost culinary schools, Yotam Ottolenghi struggled upon entering professional kitchens. Stress, a frantic pace, and demanding colleagues were the key source of his struggles as he recalled to The New Yorker: "On my first day [as cold starter chef], the sous-chef said, 'O.K., now make me a lobster bisque and an amuse-bouche.' It was terrifying. I couldn't sleep all night, and by the middle of the next day, I was so exhausted that I took my scooter and went home and never went back. I said to Noam, 'This is not a normal job.'"

Fortunately, Ottolenghi did not throw in the towel. He worked a variety of jobs as a pastry chef until he found his way to Baker & Spice where he met Sami Tamimi. It would only be a few short years until the two plucked up the courage to start their own delicatessen, the now-famous Ottolenghi deli in Notting Hill.

Ottolenghi in Notting Hill opened in 2002. This deli and all other Ottolenghis that have followed are a joint venture between Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi, entrepreneur Noam Bar, and Cornelia Staeubli who started as a sales assistant at the deli. Ottolenghi was a runaway success, drawing rave reviews from some of Britain's most established food critics, writers, and publishers.

In 2004, the quartet decided to expand, opening a location in Islington, a borough in Inner London. As Bar explains, the site in Islington posed its own challenges: "We know how to fix things now, but in 2004, when we bought Islington, we didn't know what we were doing with a restaurant. It's been a big success, but, at the beginning, I'd go for dinner, there would be eight people. Maybe," (via The New Yorker). Despite these challenges, Islington became the flagship restaurant for the Ottolenghi brand. It still receives glowing reviews to this day.

Over the years, further locations have been added to bring the total to seven. Many of these, like the location in Marylebone, are traditional Ottolenghi delis. However, other sites, including both Nopi and Rovi, are restaurants that offer something different from the ubiquitous salads and sharing plates, reflecting the diverse range of fine dining clientele within London itself.

While undoubtedly inspired by the Middle East and Mediterranean, the food Yotam Ottolenghi has become famous for does not tie itself to any one area. Instead, he celebrates the mixing and blending of influences to create something new, a fact he readily admitted to The New York Times: "It's difficult to point my finger on the map and say, 'This is from here.' Sometimes I feature a traditional dish as it is, but I'm happy to draw on anything from the Mediterranean and east, all the places that have a lot of sun and use spices extensively."

While Ottolenghi himself has a wide range of tastes, the cuisine-bending menus at his delis and restaurants owe a lot to the diverse staff that creates them. It has long been the case that each Ottolenghi site offers something different depending on the head chef's background. Unsurprisingly, Ottolenghi himself has long championed the power of immigration and the movement of people, cultures, and ideas, especially since Britain voted to leave the European Union.

Britain has long had a poor culinary reputation. It was seen as a place of bland, boring, and altogether unappetizing food, vastly inferior to the great cuisines of nearby countries, namely France. But, in recent decades, things have begun to change. British food is now fresh, multicultural, and expansive. This is largely thanks to a robust usage of spices and ingredients that were simply not part of the cuisine thirty years ago. Yotam Ottolenghi has played no small part in this transformation.

Not only has Ottolenghi popularized spices — most famously za'atar — he has also transformed how the British view vegetables, turning them from an oft-overlooked side into the star of many dishes. This cultural phenomenon has rightly been named the Ottolenghi effect. He explained the reasons behind his urge to change Britain's view of vegetables to Penguin Books: "There was never any love for vegetables; vegetables were really an afterthought. They were boiled to death; the broccoli would be a shade of grey, it would look like a corpse of the actual vegetable ... vegetables are where the interesting stuff happens in the kitchen. That's where the color is, the flavors are really interesting, there's so much more you can do. And I thought, 'What a wasted opportunity.' The most interesting cuisines in the world are the ones that have a really good use of plant-based ingredients." Now, vegetables form a key part of British meals, both at home and in restaurants.

As we have seen, Yotam Ottolenghi — although not a vegetarian — has always celebrated vegetables. He highlighted his love for them to Tasting Table: "The number one selling point for me is how tasty they are. Vegetables are these incredible things that you can manipulate and play with and transform through cooking, way more than anything else. The versatility is incredible. With meat, you can do a certain number of things, which are great, but with vegetables, you can do so much more. For me, that is the most important reason."

No vegetable better epitomizes this versatility than eggplant, an ingredient that features heavily throughout his cookbooks. From deliberately burning it for baba ganoush to stuffing the vegetable with cheese and serving it in dal, Ottolenghi's unique approach to the vegetable has opened up a world of possibilities for all cooks — something that both vegetarians and meat-eaters should be eternally grateful for.

Alongside his bustling restaurant empire, Ottolenghi has built a reputation as one of the most prolific food writers and recipe developers in the world. This is attested to by the string of best-selling, award-winning cookbooks he has released throughout the years. His first, simply titled "Ottolenghi: The Cookbook," hit shelves in 2008 and became an overnight success. "Plenty," a vegetarian recipe book made from the recipes Ottolenghi developed for The Guardian, followed. A huge hit, "Plenty" won esteemed awards including The Observer Food Monthly "Best Cookbook Award" and Galaxy National Book Award's "Food and Drink Book of The Year."

Ottolenghi's most lauded cookbook is "Jerusalem," a joint venture with Sami Tamimi. This book won awards in the United Kingdom, such as the "Cookery Book Award" from The Guild of Food Writers, and in the United States. Here, the book won a prestigious James Beard award for the category "International Cookbook." Tamimi had this to say about the book: "Not only is 'Jerusalem' a more personal book for both of us, but it's also a complete mixture of a lot of communities in Jerusalem and its very old cooking. A lot of the food from Jerusalem [the book and the city] we didn't know about because most of it is home cooking — things that you don't see at restaurants," (via HuffPost). All the more reason to find yourself a copy.

The newest addition to Yotam Ottolenghi's culinary empire is Rovi, a 90-seat restaurant in Fitzrovia, central London. Opened in 2018, the restaurant features the classic Ottolenghi style but with more emphasis on open-fire cooking and fermentation. Ottolenghi explained the reason for this to Harper's Bazaar: "We wanted to bring things back to basics with Rovi, to strip things back and create food that's delicious but also straightforward and uncomplicated in approach. The grill and ferments both allow us to do that. Grilling vegetables as a way to load them with flavor and keep the freshness is a basic tool in the Ottolenghi toolkit. We're still serving meat here, but we're doing it thoughtfully and responsibly."

While distinct from his other establishments, Rovi has received the widespread acclaim associated with all of Ottolenghi's ventures. Surprising in its borrowing from cultures not usually associated with the Ottolenghi empire — think Scandinavian and East Asian — Rovi is consistently labeled as excellent, afact that, at this point, should surprise absolutely no one.

Yotam Ottolenghi conceives, trials, and polishes the majority of his recipes from the world-famous Ottolenghi Test Kitchen in Holloway, London. The test kitchen is also the workplace of several other culinary professionals, all of whom contribute to Ottolenghi's work. Chief among them is Noor Murad, the head of the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen.

From Bahrain, Murad heads a team of multiple nationalities. Despite this, the food created in this space never feels disjointed, a fact she attributes to good communication: "We have a lot of conversations in the Test Kitchen about food. There's no real ego in the Test Kitchen because you learn that you're going to put up a plate of food and people are going to openly talk about it and discuss it and get it to the best place it could be. We are a small team, and although we all have our own influences and our own tastes and our own cultures, we all want the same thing and know what we're looking for in the end result," (via Tasting Table).

Perhaps inspired by the rip-roaring success of Bon Appétit's test kitchen YouTube account, the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen launched its own in 2021. This account gives people the opportunity to watch the professionals cook the Ottolenghi brand's most famous recipes — a must-use resource for any budding home cook.

Perhaps the biggest star to have worked in the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen is Ixta Belfrage, a self-taught chef from Italy. Having first worked at Nopi, Belfrage quickly made her way to the test kitchen where she worked for five years before branching out on her own and writing a cookbook "Mezcla." This book highlights the various cultural influences that have defined Belfrage's life, as she highlighted to Penguin Books: "I really wanted to do my own thing. And I really wanted it to be about my experience growing up and about those three countries that have shaped me. I don't really know anyone else who's cooking Brazilian, Mexican, and Italian fusion food."

 As for what's next, Belfrage is looking to break into other realms of food media, through YouTube and possible TV programs. Given the fantastic start to her solo career, we wouldn't bet against a program coming to screens anytime soon.

The Ottolenghi restaurants, delis, and test kitchens have always been located in London. Yotam Ottolenghi himself has often stated that he does not want to build a global empire and that limiting the brand to London ensures his high standards can be upheld. However, this may soon change.

The driving force behind a possible global expansion is Emilio Foa, a newcomer to the business who believes foreign markets are just too good to pass up: "This is the reason I am here and what I have been discussing with the team since day one. The Ottolenghi brand is far bigger than the Ottolenghi business. We have sold more books in the US and Australia than we have in the UK without having a physical presence there ... International can be big. The Ottolenghi brand has the potential to go across all continents," (per Restaurant). While there are no concrete plans as of yet, such strong talk from Foa would surely suggest both the United States and Australia can hope for Ottolenghi restaurants and delis in the near future.

Static Media owns and operates Daily Meal and Tasting Table.