“Comfort Food”, Yotam Ottolenghi’s new bible

Catherine Roig
09/17/2024 at 6:55 p.m.

Warm, spicy and tinged with many influences, Yotam Ottolenghi’s cuisine seduces the entire world. In his latest book, “Comfort” (Hachette Cuisine), the Anglo-Israeli chef offers his vision of comfort food, far from the clichés of the genre.

A restaurateur in London and author of ten books that have sold nearly 12 million copies, Yotam Ottolenghi is one of the most influential chefs on the planet. His secrets? Tirelessly tested recipes that are guaranteed to never fail. An emphasis on vegetables. And pretty, cool and uninhibited presentations. A magical mix that inspires chefs and amateur cooks alike. Needless to say, the release of his latest opus, “Comfort,” was eagerly awaited by his fans.

Comfort food

How would the man who brought tahini into supermarkets interpret the “comfort” food, the one you want to eat under a blanket in front of Netflix on bluesy evenings? First, by summoning his childhood memories, nestled in the spinach and cheese böreks he ate after school in Jerusalem, and for which he shares the recipe here.

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Then, by calling his girlfriends to the rescue: in fact, the chef co-signs the book with Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller and Tara Wigley, who work with him in his London test kitchen and let their Chinese, German and English roots speak in “Comfort”, which happily mix with Yotam Ottolenghi’s Middle Eastern origins.

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Needless to say, in addition to the zaatar and chili flakes we’ve been buying since we started using his recipes, we’ll need to add a few ingredients like miso for the delicious linguine with miso butter, shiitake and spinach, malt for the amazing malted fig pudding or Shaoxing wine for the mapo tofu with mushrooms and kimchi. No problem: for Yotam, we’d go to the ends of the earth!

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