Yotam Ottolenghi and Noor Murad. Photo / Elena Heatherwick
Eat Lit Food's Albert Cho talks to celebrity chef Yotam Ottolenghi and co-author Noor Murad.
I don't like cooking. Stress, chaos, time-consuming and wasteful are the words that first come to mind when the image of a kitchen crosses my mind, no matter how rustic or fancy the design. But you don't need to enjoy cooking to take a liking to Yotam Ottolenghi. My introduction to Ottolenghi's work was around five years ago, at my friend's family home. On top of their coffee table was a book with a lemon on the cover, accompanied by the word "SIMPLE" in capital letters. The graphic embodied the title perfectly and I was compelled to pick it up.
I opened the hardback by the centrefold, only to find recipes of colourful salads. I don't like vegetables, so you could say my first Ottolenghi moment was short-lived.
Working in the food industry, however, means it's inevitable that you'll come across moments that are undeniably Ottolenghi, and most of the time you don't even realise it.
My favourite dish at my local cafe, Honey Bones, starts with your regular scrambled eggs, cooked medium so you still get some creaminess from the yolk. The sunshine yellow-coloured swirl is gently placed on a Turkish pide, but before the chefs send it out, they add some finishing touches — fried sage leaves and a sprinkling of za'atar. These small tweaks might seem minor, but they make a world of a difference, giving that plate of scrambled eggs the right to be titled "Istanbul Scramble" on their menu. Those eggs have been Ottolenghified.
In Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things, co-authored with the head of the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen, Noor Murad, "Ottolenghify" is defined as "to make something feel unequivocally Ottolenghi."
I ask Ottolenghi to elaborate on this in a way he would explain it to someone who was unfamiliar with not only himself, but cooking in general.
He tells me, "it's a sense of abundance with a lot going on in every dish. There's a surprise, there's vegetables ... lots of vegetables. There's a Mediterranean twist and there's a lot of layering of flavours going on. Flavours are stacked on top of each other to achieve that kind of richness of experience." Basically, something that tastes absolutely sensational and hits every part of the palate.
Extra Good Things is the culinary bible for adding that little bit of je ne sais quoi. That secret ingredient that gets people moaning, "What the hell did you put in this?" across the dinner table after taking their first bite. A sequel to Shelf Love, a book about clearing your shelves, Extra Good Things is all about filling them back up. Pickles, sauces, condiments, sprinkles are on the list of amplifications to any meal.
"You can accessorise your beans on toast or scrambled eggs or anything you have on your day-to-day with these flavour bombs," says Murad. These flavour bombs can range from anchovy aioli to tarragon gremolata, small additions that transform and elevate your meals.
Although it's Ottolenghi's name on the cover, it's evident that recognising his team is important to him. In the first pages, he's quick to acknowledge Murad as the book's narrator and the work of the rest of the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen, often referred to as The Avengers — Gitai Fisher, Verena Lochmuller, Chaya Maya, Tara Wigley, Claudine Boulstridge, Jens Klotz and Clodagh McKenna.
They represent a melting pot of cultures which reminds me of a K-pop group. The most successful K-pop groups have members from different cultural backgrounds which come together to form a unique synergy.
Ottolenghi and Murad laugh at the analogy. Murad says, "I love that, it's like Otto-pop," and Ottolenghi jokes, "we'll ditch The Avengers and from now on, it's a K-pop group." He tells me that collaborating with people that have insight into an area he does not is important in a team. Creating nine books he's learned "it's not about agreement or disagreement" but about trust while giving space to allow creativity to flourish. "It's amazing how much you see eye-to-eye once you've got the basic trust and understanding on what we're all talking about," he says. "I think that's what we have at the test kitchen."
I ask Murad to run me through a typical day at OTK, to which she tells me, "There's no real typical day, which is what makes the job so exciting — because there are so many culinary disasters and culinary wins that happen on a day-to-day basis."
Usually, tastings trickle in from around 10am and, although they're called The Avengers, they're just like the rest of us when it comes to stomach capacity. Murad chuckles as she says, "There's always that person who puts out their dish at 4.30pm and it's like, 'Are you serious?' So the earlier you get a dish on the table, the better.
"We all see eye to eye on what makes a dish Ottolenghi or if it's right for whatever column or book or home this recipe is supposed to go to."
Curious about the final moment that determines if this is a recipe worth publishing, I ask if there's a certain instinctual feeling that they get after tasting a meal. Ottolenghi explains, "Your taste buds give you the answers to these kinds of questions. You taste it, it's delicious, it hits the spot and you know that you're there, but it's definitely something that is hard to explain."
Just so we don't get too spiritual in this piece, he offers some logic and rationale behind the decision-making process and mentions how years of experience have given him an insight of which ingredients will spark interest among the audience.
Aubergine is one ingredient that he talks about with confidence, saying, "In our universe, with an aubergine, you just know you're going to get people's attention." I think we can all attest to that statement — Kiwis froth over eggplants.
In the book you'll find more than 80 recipes, and although I promised myself to not ask a question as generic as this one, I couldn't resist asking both for their favourite recipes. I can tell by the short pause before their answers that this is a question that is much too broad, so I quickly follow up with: "The one that comes to your mind first."
Murad breaks the awkward silence with, "Oh … I don't know … I think … um …" and it's confirmed — that was a stupid question.
Thankfully, she finally brings up the sunshine salad. "I love that salad so much because the dressing is made of raw carrots, ginger and soy, and you just blitz it up. You can drink it like a smoothie. It's a very generous dressing-to-vegetable ratio. It's bright orange, you top it with avocados, cucumber and sesame seeds and it's just such a vibrant, healthy, pretty dish."
Ottolenghi has had more time to think of his response, so he skips the "um's" and "ah's" and says the parmigiana pie with tomato sauce. He calls it the "winner comfort food" as he highlights the melted cheese, Middle Eastern spices and kataifi pastry sprinkled on top. This comes as a surprise since this is the most beige dish in the book.
"I think beige food is often the most delicious food," he says. "There's nothing inherently wrong with that." Honest and true. I instantly feel closer to him.
I decided to add a bit more spice to my next question — to Ottolenghify it, you could say — and ask the pair to share the extra good things. I ask them to think beyond food ingredients and tell me what is essential to creating a delicious meal.
Ottolenghi treats his time in the kitchen as "me time". No distractions and ideally "on a Saturday morning when my kids are with their godmother. I listen to music, go to the greengrocer and really immerse myself in the process."
Murad says, "For me, leaving your ego out the door is needed to make a good meal. Not trying to be showy or trendy or trying to recreate something just because. I think that's really important and that's something we try to do in the test kitchen. We make food people want to eat and what we want to eat ourselves."
As Murad says, leave your ego behind, open Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things, find a recipe that makes you salivate just by looking at the photo and cook. Learn about what you like, which combinations excite your palate and allow yourself to make this book your own.
Ottolenghi and Murad encourage creativity, treating this book as a starting point and adding your personal flair because understanding how to navigate your kitchen means you're already on your way to becoming an Ottolenghified cook.
Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things, by Noor Murad and Yotam Ottolenghi (Penguin Random House, $55) is out now.
This vibrant salad is what we'd call "sunshine on a plate", thanks to the striking carrot-ginger dressing. For the smoothest dressing, strain it through a sieve once you've blended everything together. Otherwise, if you're not fussed about it being super-smooth, just eat it as it is – it's so ridiculously good you'll want to dress everything with it. Eat this alongside some grilled vegetables or tofu, for a very happy meal.
Serves 4, as a side
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Salting time: 30 minutes
750g lebanese cucumbers
½ red onion, peeled, thinly sliced into rounds
1 Tbsp lime juice
5g Thai basil leaves
1 large ripe avocado, peeled, halved, pitted and thinly sliced at an angle
2 tsp sesame seeds, well toasted
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
Salt
CARROT-GINGER DRESSING
250g carrots, peeled and roughly chopped into 2cm pieces
20g fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 Tbsp runny honey
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1½ Tbsp white miso
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp lime juice
75ml olive oil
1. Place the cucumbers on a chopping board and use the flat side of a knife to bash each one along its length a few times, or until the cucumber starts to break in places. Halve the cucumber lengthwise (don't worry if it's a bit broken) and remove and discard the seedy insides. Slice at an angle into 2–2½cm-thick slices. Put the sliced cucumbers into a bowl with ¾ tsp of salt, tossing to combine, and leave to sit for 30 minutes, drawing out as much water as possible. Drain in a sieve, discarding the salty water, then return the cucumber to the bowl and add the onion, lime juice and basil, tossing gently to combine.
2. Meanwhile, make the carrot-ginger dressing by placing all the ingredients in a food processor or blender with 4 Tbsp of water and ¼ tsp of salt and blitzing until completely smooth (this might take a few minutes). Strain the mixture through a sieve set over a bowl, pushing to extract as much dressing as possible (save the pulp for another use).
3. Sprinkle the sliced avocado with a pinch of salt.
4. Pour the dressing on to a large, lipped plate, swirling to coat the base. Top with half the avocado slices, followed by all the cucumber mixture and the remaining avocado. Finish with the sesame seeds and sesame oil and serve right away.
Carrot-ginger dressing
Keep refrigerated in a sterilised jar for up to three days. Be sure to whisk everything together again, as there'll be a natural separation of liquid and solids.
Toss with crunchy green leaves like iceberg or gem lettuce, or with thinly shredded red and white cabbage.
Edited extract from Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things.
A live cook-off featured ox heart, wapiti, wild boar and plenty of edible wildlife.