Yotam Ottolenghi: ‘I still get stressed about hosting a dinner party'

In recent years, ‘Ottolenghi’ has become a byword, used almost exclusively by middle-class dinner party hosts, for ‘I am better than you’. It stands for quality, flavour and, above all, almost unpalatable levels of smugness. No longer do people in the UK prepare ‘Middle Eastern food’, they now prepare ‘Ottolenghi’ food.

‘Drama in the mouth’ is the cooking philosophy of the restaurateur and author. But who is the man behind the moniker? The one who is responsible, surely, for the largest uptick in supermarket sales of tahini and pomegranate molasses this country has ever seen.

He is a flamboyant dresser, for starters. When I meet Yotam (so famous is his last name, that I have momentarily forgotten he will even have a first name) the 57-year-old is beaming, wearing a white shirt patterned with pink turtles. We are here to talk about his new cookbook, Ottolenghi Simple Too, which he assures me that even I, a chronic fish-fingers-in-the-airfryer type of cook, will be able to make something from. The recipes look delicious.

‘This is a book that’s been percolating in the back of my mind since the first Simple, which was published in 2008,’ the Israeli-born British chef and restaurateur says. ‘I am always asking myself: how do I make the food super accessible for a busy world and people who are just looking to find a way into the kitchen that is not too demanding?’

Along with his colleague and co-author Verena Lochmuller, he has collected recipes ‘that are really easy and simple’. ‘It all came together into something that I’m so proud of, because I think it’s really tempting, but also very achievable,’ he says.

This emphasis on easy and simple recipes may be a product of Yotam becoming a father. He has two boys, aged 11 and 13, who he shares with his ex-husband (the pair divorced last Christmas). ‘I cook for my kids very often and for them I know I need to get dinner on the table quite quickly,’ he says. Has being the children of Ottolenghi gifted them a sophisticated palette at all? ‘Unfortunately the answer is no. They love their chicken nuggets,’ he says.

It’s hard to imagine Yotam doing any other job, particularly one without lashings of za’atar, but he has an extremely varied CV. First a stint in the Israel Defence Force, then a short period working for newspapers, before he eventually came to London to study French pastry cooking at Le Cordon Bleu. It’s certainly not the classic chef pipeline.

‘I was planning on becoming an academic, because that is my background,’ he recalls. Yotam’s father was a Chemistry professor and his mother a high school principal. ‘I was thinking that this was going to be my world,’ he says, but after a degree and a masters, he decided the world of academia was too insular for him. ‘I wanted to speak a language that everyone understands. Food is that — whether a person likes cooking or they don’t, they still eat.’

When he hosts, he does still feel the pressure. ‘To put a meal on the table for a group of people is not easy… I still get stressed because I want it to be the best it can, but I also know that the expectations are quite high.’ Without those expectations, however, he thinks ‘you kind of lose your touch.’ Yotam definitely hasn't lost his.

Your aesthetic hero

One of my closest friends, Ivo Bisignano, was a Sicilian designer. He passed away a few years ago, and we worked together on many projects. He really understood food, and I loved how he dressed. He was like a style guru for me, in the sense that anything he touched, he did so well. He was definitely my inspiration in many ways.

An exhibition that has really impressed me

I saw a Louise Bourgeois exhibition in Bilbao, Spain, more than a decade ago. She had her famous spiders. It just stayed with me as something so powerful and intense. How they occupy a space in the room is in a very science fiction way.

The last thing of note that you bought for yourself

I bought some pink birkenstocks for the summer.

A possession you would never sell

I have a tiny statue that I have from childhood, which is one of these office toys of a man balancing. You cannot, whatever you do, push him off centre. I inherited it from my dad.

Your favourite painting

Recently, because the death of David Hockney reminded me, I'd say I really love his works from California. The collages of bits of torn paper he made of the roads and deserts, I found those very impactful. I was exposed to them at a young age and they really shape, somehow, this distorted view of reality which is familiar and unfamiliar. I found them very powerful and I just love them. They really take you somewhere but they also challenge you.

A book you found inspiring

I just read Whistler, by Ann Patchett. I found it very inspiring and very readable, and I love her in general.

The music that you work to

Yesterday I was listening to a lot of music while I was cooking. Do you know Christine and the Queens? I always listen to their music. I don't understand French, but I find it beautiful to listen to.

The last podcast you listened to

I listen to The Rest is History quite religiously.

The person that would play you in a film of your life

Jeff Goldblum.

What you’d take with you to a desert island

A good knife, olive oil and a bowl of lemons.

The thing that gets you up on the morning

I get really excited about starting my day. I can’t wait to come to work, because I love my job so much. I'm not just saying it, I really do feel very excited to come to work.

The items you collect

If I do collect anything then it would be ceramic bowls. They’ve taken over my kitchen.

A hotel to could go back and back to

We opened a restaurant in Geneva a few years ago in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. I go there and I don’t pay and get great food. I love that hotel, although I realise it might not be affordable to everyone.

The best present you’ve ever received

Recently someone came back from Paris and bought me some chocolates from my favourite chocolate shop. It’s called Plaq. It’s a very bougie little chocolate shop. They do very exotic flavours and they taste so good. I highly recommend.

The most memorable meal you've ever eaten

I went to Mallorca a few years ago and went to a restaurant called Sa Foradada. It does paella and the view is incredible. It sits on a cliff overlooking a cove. You can only get there by boat or if you walk down a hill for an hour. It's just the most incredible location.

'Ottolenghi Simple Too' by Yotam Ottolenghi and Verena Lochmuller (Ebury Press, £30) is out now. All photography by Jonathan Lovekin.