Top 234 Quotes & Sayings by Yotam Ottolenghi - Page 2
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an Israeli chef Yotam Ottolenghi.
Last updated on April 14, 2025.
When it comes to the battle of the molluscs, cephalopods win tentacles down.
These days, meals are more open to personal preferences. People like to serve themselves.
The teaching thing, the one where I have to impart my knowledge, is probably what comes the least naturally to me because I'm an absorber of things.
Most men say they can cook pasta, but I think you should find a little bit of an unusual angle on your pasta and make that your signature dish.
The moment to tell my barber I was gay just never came up.
I have an intense dislike of doctrines, because you will always end up eating your words.
The Guardian's 'Word of Mouth' blog bridges the gap between blogging and serious food journalism.
The most important thing for me is to walk the little alleys of the city, to find the little alcove where someone is cooking something, and just watch them do it. That's my idea of fun.
Though not a true cereal but a fruit, buckwheat seeds resemble cereal grains and are often used in a similar way to rice, barley, bulgar or quinoa, usually as a side dish.
Buckwheat, like Marmite and durian, is a seriously divisive foodstuff, so it needs a seriously capable defence team if it's ever going to make it on to most people's dinner tables.
As with lemon juice, the more sorrel you use, the more it has to be balanced with something sweet, starchy or creamy - it's a yin-yang approach to cooking that I find rather calming.
TV chefs are not responsible for people's consumption of fibre; this is not our job.
As for pineapple, it's far more versatile than you might think, and certainly merits wider use than in Hawaiian pizzas and pina coladas and on cheesy cocktail sticks.
The combination of lentils with rice or bulgur is the absolute height of Levantine comfort food. I could eat it every day.
Verjuice may not be the easiest thing in the world to find, but you should be able to track some down in good delis and online.
There are tons of wonderful places to eat in London.
Going out for a meal, especially for young urbanites, is less about socialising over enjoyable food than about enjoying food as a way to socialise.
The difference between brown and white rice is that the former is not milled. With the outer bran and germ intact, the rice is therefore chewier and nuttier.
I adore recipes that make use of one cut of meat or a whole animal to create a complex dish, loaded with flavour.
There used to be a time - it isn't so much the case now - that vegetarianism was some kind of religion, and either you belong or you don't belong.
Some breakfast cereals only come into their own as children's party treats: what are cornflakes and Coco Pops for, if not to clump together with melted chocolate and spoon into a cupcake holder?
I love dishes that feature the various shades of a single colour, making you stop to check what's in there.
The way to entice people into cooking is to cook delicious things.
I do support people eating more vegetables. It's a good thing to do.
Eating ready-made meals is about being very passive, and actively cooking is something that nothing compares to.
In certain European cuisines, vegetables are cooked a long time. I take the term 'al dente' and use it for vegetables.
Way back when I was a junior pastry chef, I'd bake loads of muffins every morning, as many as 120 or so, while operating on autopilot.
Food was always important in my family, but I didn't think of it as a vocation until a later point in life.
In vast parts of the world, people don't eat meat.
Chinese sausage, which is widely available from Asian grocers and online, is sweet, rich, and enticingly smoky. I add it to steamed rice with strips of omelette and a few baby veg stir-fried with soy.
Some days, just occasionally, when I've had just one too many chickpeas, drizzles of olive oil or chunks of feta, I crave a return to the sushi-filled joints of Tokyo.
I don't do guilt. Whatever I do, I do it happily.
Lebanese mezze, Cantonese dim sum and Basque pinchos have all evolved over years and are designed to make sense together.
People don't know how good cauliflower is, because they always have this image of cauliflower cheese - awful, sticky, creamy and rich.
Pasta with melted cheese is the one thing I could eat over and over again.
Steaming maintains some of the aubergine flesh's texture, which doesn't happen if you cook it in any other way.
Most fish require a short cooking time, but cephalopods are the exception to this fishy rule. As with some cuts of larger land beasts, the longer they're cooked, the more tender they get.
I have had to come to terms with the fact that I am hooked on Twitter. Not good.
Many ingredients are called 'earthy,' but none comes as close to fitting the bill as buckwheat. I'm mildly obsessed with the stuff.
What makes maftoul worth celebrating is that it's so easy and forgiving to cook.
I rarely cook traditional risotto, but I love other grains cooked similarly - barley, spelt or split wheat. I find they have more character than rice and absorb other flavours more wholeheartedly.
New-season lamb shoulder, cooked pink, is the perfect platform for a mixture of fresh and cooked herbs.
Poaching white fish in moderately hot oil guarantees soft-textured flesh and allows you to prepare a sauce calmly, without the usual panic about overcooking the fish.
Too many books are full of recipes that aren't doable at home. They are purely aspirational. They are quite frightening, even for me.
Most of my recipes start life in the domestic kitchen, and even those that start out in the restaurant kitchen have to go through the domestic kitchen.
Healthy is in the eye of the beholder.
I used to love fine dining, but I lost my appetite for it to a degree because sometimes it is too much about the effort and too little about the result.
Long-, medium- and short-grain rices differ in the amount and type of starch they have.
It's well worth making your own harissa, but there are some very good commercial varieties.
Stereotypical vegetarian food looks gray and brown.
Tiny quails may not seem as impressive as a mammoth turkey, but there is something refreshing about a spread of individual birds on the Christmas table.
There are many reasons I feel at home in the U.K., but if I were asked to pinpoint the moment I knew I'd arrived, it might well be when I realised the British shared my love of fritters.
One of the troubles with food is that people take themselves too seriously. This is why I'm very happy for people to change my recipes, alter them, replace one ingredient for another.
When I cook a meal, I like to serve things one by one and keep them separate. I get that from my father - he's such a purist. Some people even put their desserts on the main plate. It's just wrong.
Sea spaghetti looks like dark fettuccine and has a similar texture - you can get it in health food stores or online.
The kitchen is tough. It's one of the last bastions in civilized culture that sets out to crush the spirit.
If you can't taste an ingredient, you have to ask yourself why it is there.
My secret with kale is to add lots of sweet or sharp flavours to offset some of that grassy intensity.
The range of ingredients available to home cooks has expanded dramatically. People are incorporating herbs and spices like lemongrass, smoked Mexican chile, sumac, and za'atar mix.
I have yet to meet a carnivore who doesn't love a sausage roll.
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