YOTAM OTTOLENGHI PLANS TO MAKE LIFE IN THE KITCHEN NICE AND SIMPLE

Ella Walker chats to the Jerusalem-born chef about his latest cookbook - which is quite a step away from the usual Ottolenghi vibe.

Yotam Ottolenghi is taking a very, very different tack with his latest cookbook - and he knows it. It’s called Simple, and no, he’s not being ironic. He’s the man who’s taken Middle Eastern cooking mainstream in Britain and single-handedly had us all knocking the seeds out of pomegranates with wooden spoons and stocking up on ruby jars of spicy harissa - and he knows what we all say about him behind his back: Why so many ingredients? Who the hell owns sumac? What even is black garlic? Why so many steps when we just want to eat?

Until fairly recently, simplicity just wasn’t something the Israeli-British chef even considered in the kitchen. “It never crossed my mind,” Ottolenghi confesses, with a good-natured laugh. “Recipes were always things that I cooked and made sense to me in a particular way; those kind of requirements [simplicity, easiness] were not something I was even thinking about.”

Then a few years ago, The Guardian - who he writes a weekly column for - requested that he put together a series of simple, seasonal recipes for a supplement.

Despite “scratching my head and thinking, ‘Oh gosh, how do I do simple?’”, the outcome was a success and became something of a series. Eventually, developing a whole cookbook of simple Ottolenghi recipes made sense.

Of course, some things don’t change. In the introduction, you are knowingly urged to invest in 10 ‘Ottolenghi’ ingredients, including rose harissa, black garlic, tahini and sumac.
“It is a compromise between what is familiar to most cooks, and what is the ‘Ottolenghi’ worldview, which is slightly less familiar,” explains the chef, 49. “So we meet somewhere in the middle with these recipes.”

It means that, alongside za’atar, barberries and preserved lemons, Simple also features ingredients the everyday home is likely to already stock, like potatoes and pasta, although he “tried to think a little bit differently with them”. So, an Ottolenghi jacket potato it turns out, comes stuffed with spinach, gorgonzola and walnuts, rather than a mound of beans and cheese, and his oven chips aren’t crinkly, they’re topped with oregano and feta.

He’s right though, the inventiveness of this book does not equate to tumultuous lists of obscure ingredients. In fact, these recipes lean massively towards being short, snappy, achievable, and outside that standard Ottolenghi stereotype.

“I just had to take it head-on, because I do know that that perception exists,” he admits wryly when quoted the book’s introductory statement, which says: “Ottolenghi Simple is not a contradiction in terms! I know, I know: I’ve seen the raised eyebrows, I’ve heard the jokes”.

The deli owner and restaurateur gets it, he loves his tahini and his sumac, but adds: “Sometimes I think it’s not justified. Many, many of the recipes that I’ve published in the past were really easy and simple and doable. [It’s just that] the recipes that became most famous are the ones that do have 25 ingredients and involve six bowls.”

What was crucial in writing this book was figuring out what people actually mean when they say ‘easy’ or ‘simple’. “It really does vary from one person to another and from one occasion to another,” says Ottolenghi. “Something you would perceive as simple or easy for a weekday, you could push it a little bit further on the weekend, when you can make slightly more effort; that’s about time and peace of mind.”

It’s also a matter of what kind of cook you are. For instance: “Some people really love to have everything made in advance, and to just put it together at the very last minute, or defrost or warm up; while some people are very happy to cook fresh and serve it straightaway.”

Ottolenghi himself is a combination of two cooks, depending on the time of day, and the day of the week. “As I come home from work, which is in the early evening, I tend to do something that is quick. I grab a few things from the bottom of the fridge, a couple of vegetables, then I go to the pantry and look for packets of pasta or rice or chickpeas, whatever I’ve got, and put it together quite quickly - this is weekday cooking,” he explains. “I’ve got a couple of young kids, so you can’t really hang around too long before you feed them, otherwise all hell will break loose.”

But when he has friends over on the weekend for Sunday lunch, “I’d normally think about it a little bit more in advance and plan and make things ahead,” he says. “For me, really good food for entertaining is food you could have more or less ready to dish up and put together without too much effort.”

His husband Karl meanwhile is all about batch cooking and stocking the freezer with soups, stews and casseroles. “I am very fond of the freezer, I have to say,” says Ottolenghi with a laugh. “It’s very useful, as long as you don’t forget things in there for years.”

All these types of cooks are catered for in Simple, with recipes labelled accordingly, using the acronym: S - short on time, I – 10 ingredients or less, M - make ahead, P - pantry, L - lazy, E – easier than you think.

If all else fails though, Ottolenghi is “not a purist” and is happy to admit he and his family get takeout every now and again. “I always say I don’t do guilt. I have a lot of sweets in the glove compartment of my car, Skittles and gummy snakes - and I had it before I had kids.

“In life, you have to be very flexible,” he adds, “otherwise it’s just too hard.”