Yotam Assaf Ottolenghi (Hebrew:יותם אוטולנגי; born 14 December 1968) is an Israeli-born Britishchef, restaurateur, and food writer. AlongsideSami Tamimi, he is the co-owner of nine delis and restaurants in London and Bicester Village and the author of several bestselling cookbooks, includingOttolenghi: The Cookbook (2008),Plenty (2010),Jerusalem (2012) andSimple (2018).[1]
Yotam Ottolenghi was born toJewish parents inJerusalem and raised in itsRamat Denya suburb, the son of Michael Ottolenghi, a chemistry professor atHebrew University and Ruth Ottolenghi, a high school principal.[2] He is ofItalian Jewish andGerman Jewish descent and often spent his childhood summers in Italy.[3] He has an older sister, Tirza Florentin. His younger brother, Yiftach, was killed byfriendly fire in 1992 during his military service.[4]Ottolenghi is an Italian name, an Italianised form ofEttlingen,[5] a town inBaden-Württemberg from which Jews were expelled in the 15th and 16th centuries; many settled inNorthern Italy.
Ottolenghi met his partner Karl Allen in 2000; they married in 2012 and live inCamden, London, with their two sons, born in 2013 and 2015.[4][8][9] In 2013, Ottolenghi "came out as a gay father" in aGuardian essay that detailed the lengthy process of conceiving their first son viagestational surrogacy, an option that he believes should be more widely available to those who cannot conceive naturally.[10]
Ottolenghi served as apastry chef at three London restaurants: theMichelin-starredCapital Restaurant, Kensington Place, and Launceston Place inKensington New Town. In 1999, he became head pastry chef at the artisanal pastry shop Baker and Spice, where he met the Palestinian chefSami Tamimi, who grew up in Jerusalem'sOld City.[11] Ottolenghi and Tamimi bonded over their shared language,Hebrew, and a joint "incomprehension of traditional English food".[12]
In 2002, the duo (in collaboration with Noam Bar) founded the eponymousdelicatessen Ottolenghi in theNotting Hill district of London. The deli quickly gained a cult following due to its inventive dishes, characterised by the foregrounding of vegetables, unorthodox flavour combinations, and the abundance ofMiddle Eastern ingredients such asrose water,za'atar, andpomegranate molasses.[7][8][13] When asked to explain his cooking philosophy Ottolenghi said "I want drama in the mouth."[7] The Ottolenghi brand has since expanded to three more delis (inIslington,Marylebone andChelsea), a formal restaurant inSpitalfields, a brasserie named NOPI inSoho, and a vegetable-centric restaurant named ROVI which opened inFitzrovia in June 2018.[14]
In 2006, Ottolenghi began writing a weekly column forThe Guardian titled "The New Vegetarian," though he himself is not avegetarian and has sometimes noted where a vegetable-centric recipe would pair well with a particular cut of meat. Influenced by the straightforward, culturally-grounded food writing ofNigella Lawson andClaudia Roden,[15] Ottolenghi's recipes rarely fit within traditional dietary or cultural categories.[16] He explained that his mission is "celebrating vegetables or pulses without making them taste like meat, or as complements to meat, but to be what they are. It does no favour to vegetarians, making vegetables second best."[4]
His debut cookery bookOttolenghi: The Cookbook was published in 2008. Eight volumes have followed: the all-vegetable cookery booksPlenty (2010),Plenty More (2014) andOttolenghi Flavour (2020);Jerusalem (2012);NOPI (2015); the dessert cookery bookSweet (2017);Ottolenghi Simple (2018); and most recently a series of Ottolenghi Test Kitchen (OTK) books:OTK: Shelf Love (2021) andOTK: Extra Good Things (2022). Ottolenghi's bestselling cookery books have proven influential, withThe New York Times noting that they are "widely knocked-off for their plain-spoken instructions, puffy covers, and photographs [that Ottolenghi] oversees himself, eschewing a food stylist".[9] In 2014, theLondon Evening Standard remarked that Ottolenghi had "radically rewritten the way Londoners cook and eat", andBon Appétit wrote that he had "made the world love vegetables".[17][18]
Ottolenghi has hosted three television specials:Jerusalem on a Plate (BBC4, 2011);Ottolenghi's Mediterranean Feast (More4, 2012); andOttolenghi's Mediterranean Island Feast (More4, 2013). He served as a guest judge on the ninth (2017), eleventh (2019) and thirteenth (2021) seasons of the cookinggame showMasterchef Australia. He had declined numerous guest-judge offers in the past and agreed to appear onMasterchef Australia "because it's quite humane and positive. It's about the personal development of the contestants more than the competition."[19]
