Let’s get something straight: Yotam Ottolenghi isn’t just a vegetarian cook. True, few have done as much for the eggplant since the invention of baba ganoush, and his book Plenty is devoted to “vibrant vegetable recipes”, but his repertoire delivers more than the odd nod to the carnivore.
Dishes such as beef shin pastilla, fennel and radish, or dukkah-crusted mackerel with burnt aubergine yoghurt, feature prominently on the menus of his eponymous restaurants and delis.
Nevertheless, the Ottolenghi hallmark remains those vivid vegetable creations and, while he baulks at suggestions he reinvented the salad, he certainly has given it a makeover.
“If you take a good cut of meat — the same applies to fish or seafood — you don’t need to do that much to it,” he says. “Vegetables take a bit more work but they pay back with lots of TLC as well because they are good for you and they are much more versatile.”
Ottolenghi’s culinary masterstroke was to re-create the tableau of the markets in his native Israel for a receptive London audience. I ate at the original cafe in north London a decade ago, and still remember the splash of colour his food delivered on a hazy winter’s day.
Read the full article by Ian Gilbert at The Australian (subscription only).