Five Minutes With Yotam Ottolenghi – Including One Dish He Never Orders at Restaurants

Yotam Ottolenghi never stays away long. Ahead of the release of his book, Simple Too (due in September), the London-based restaurateur, chef, TV host and bestselling author has just wrapped up another Australian tour. This time round, rather than the usual Q&A with another cook or journalist, he presented a unique one-man show blending elements of cooking demonstration and stand-up comedy. In between shows, he sat down for lunch with Broadsheet.

What underrated ingredient should people start using more?
Gosh, underrated ingredient. All the members of the celery family, like celery root or celeriac, and celery itself – celery root has sweetness in it and if you roast it really well, it’s the basis for so many things.

If you could only cook with one veggie for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I’m tossing between like an eggplant and a cauliflower. Eggplant needs the big flavours and cauliflower goes with the mellow flavours. Hard choice.

Your books are mostly written with other chefs. What makes a great collaborator?
All the people that I work with, it’s always really important for me that they keep their own culinary identity, that they cook what they love to cook, that they cook what they know best, because it doesn’t help to try to force my own view on what they should be cooking. Because then you kind of run out of ideas.

If someone could only buy one Ottolenghi cookbook, which one would you recommend?
I suppose it would be either Simple or Jerusalem. It depends what you’re after. If you want, like, a beginner’s view into the Ottolenghi world, then I think Simple does that. It kind of does everything, but more entry-level. And Jerusalem, just because it’s a very personal book – it tells the story of my childhood and it’s where the fascination with food of the Middle East started off.

What’s one dish you never order at restaurants?
I like to eat without having to work that hard at the table, so I never order lobster. I love to engage in conversation, I love to talk, I love to drink, and I just don’t want to start working really hard cracking lobster shells.

What do Australian restaurants do better than anywhere else in the world?
So many things. So many things. First of all, I think you have great ingredients here. Great vegetables, great olive oil. Australians are unashamedly obsessed with food – that’s not true for every nation. And I think that obsession, it shines through the food.

Do you ever worry you’ll run out of ideas?
This is a fear that I have every morning, that I’m going to run out of ideas. It’s the ultimate fear. But it also keeps me moving.

You’re a father, author, TV hos and restaurateur. Is there anything left you still want to accomplish?
I never have a plan. I do things that excite me. I’m doing this tour now of Australia, New Zealand and North America and I’m really loving it. And I never thought, “I’m going to do this”. One thing leads to another and I discover something new.