Feast your eyes

As Yotam Ottolenghi publishes his first cookbook, Pendle Harte meets the Notting Hill-based chef

Above: Yotam Ottolenghi

Another branch of Ottolenghi has just opened, this time in Belgravia. Though calling it a branch sounds like it’s a clone, and this place isn’t about identically-wrapped sandwiches or uniform meals, as anyone who’s ever tried to decide what to have in the Ledbury Road one will know. Visually, the spread is an overload of colour and choice, an excess of ingredients and a wealth of variety. It’s like a technicolour fantasy feast from Disney, though without the artifice. The window is always full of outrageously outsize meringues that look otherworldly, like meteorites,
or sculpture. In the world of salads and cakes, Ottolenghi offers the extreme versions.
Yotam Ottolenghi, the man behind it all, is predictably concerned with appearances. “Not that flavour comes second,” he adds, “but appearance is just as important.” Hot on the heels of the Motcomb Street launch comes the publication of his first cookbook, Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, which looks just as stylish as any of the stores, with irresistible photography and tempting recipes. “I am very particular about how things look and I needed to have my say about the font and every last detail,” says Yotam, who is a quiet and elegant type, publicity-shy and reluctant to focus on himself. “Particularly at the beginning I thought it’s all about what we’re producing, not about us.” But it’s difficult not to be interested in the people behind the business, especially when you know that the main partnership is an unlikely Israeli/Palestinian one.
Yotam and his business partner Sami Tamimi first met in London in the late 90s when they were both working at Baker & Spice – but they soon discovered that their personal histories overlapped and conflicted. Both born in Jerusalem in 1968, but on opposite sides of the border, Yotam in the Jewish west and Sami in the Arab east, the pair led very different lives within close proximity of each other. Is this a unique situation? “I think so. But for me it’s completely natural now and all about friendship. The whole political thing is just part of life and we don’t think about it, although the situation at home is so horrendously depressing that it’s nice for us to show that people can actually work together. It’s quite an optimistic partnership and it’s amazing how similar many of our experiences have been.” Unsurprisingly, the story has generated interest among the Israeli press, but Yotam’s not into self-publicity.
He’s a gentle, softly spoken man who came to London initially to take a break from a budding career in journalism in Tel Aviv, where he was about to embark on a PhD. And somehow, in London he decided to pursue a career in food, based on his long-standing love of cooking and eating. “Working in kitchens was very intense. I was 30, very old to be starting out, and the atmosphere was a bit like the army. There were pleasant places to work, though, like Kensington Place.” He became pastry chef at Launceston Place, where he was recognised as a serious talent.
When he and Sami met, they felt that London was missing a place that wasn’t a restaurant to buy serious, carefully prepared food. “In that way London was quite backward in comparison to, say, New York, where you could always get very good food to take away. Here there were ready meals, and salad counters.” He and Sami had gravitated to Baker and Spice in appreciation of its presentation and serious attitude to food, and when they decided to set up on their own, they took some of Baker and Spice’s themes and enhanced them. “I don’t like to give myself compliments but we twisted it around a bit and took the presentation a step further, making it even more fresh and dynamic, more abundant,” says Yotam. Abundance is a word he uses a lot – his mission for Ottolenghi was to be generous and expansive, to have lots of everything. “The food is generous and we go the whole way. If something has herbs in it, we put lots of herbs in. Everything is in your face, the quantity and the colour.”
First they opened in Ledbury Road, near Yotam’s Ladbroke Grove home. And immediately it was packed, so they looked for another site. Then came Islington, then Holland Street in Kensington. The Upper Street one is a proper eaterie with wine and more space, while the west London ones aren’t really places to linger. What are his best sellers? “Always aubergine. A plate of aubergine sells in minutes. I don’t think it was all that prominent in London five years ago but now it’s our best seller.” On the menu in Belgravia today are chargrilled courgettes with pecorino, truffle oil and lots of herbs, for instance, and a couscous salad full of roasted vegetables. Then there are the famed cakes, particularly the passion fruit meringue tart which demand dictates they provide daily. But when Yotam eats out, he doesn’t like anything fancy. “I like simple food, not elaborate restaurants. I go to little regional joints like Al Waha on Westbourne Grove. If I go to serious food places then it’s to the River Café or Locatelli but I’m more drawn to more basic things. I want to taste the ingredients. I want to taste the hands.”
The new book has been hard work, says Yotam, especially with his insistence on being involved in every part of the process. “I never thought so much work goes into a book, but it didn’t put me off and I would love to do another one.” Apparently he has lots of recipes left, even after the weekly one he supplies to the Guardian Weekend magazine. Well, no surprise there, because for Yotam it’s all about abundance.  l

Ottolenghi: The Cookbook is published by Ebury Press
on 1 May, £25
www.ottolenghi.com