Yotam Ottolenghi Quotes

Because the sweeter the cake, the more bitter the jelly can be.

Sweet meat must have sour sauce.

And cooking is about balance and harmony.

When you taste things in the right order, sometimes they taste so much different than if you taste them out of order. Not that there's a right order, like by rule, but just like in a thoughtful way that makes sense.

Find combinations of flavors you love and buy the best quality ingredients you can afford. Your food is only going to be as good as the sum of its parts, like anything else.

Cooking is not difficult. Everyone has taste, even if they don't realize it. Even if you're not a great chef, there's nothing to stop you understanding the difference between what tastes good and what doesn't.

Food is all about balance; it is all about taste.

I don't know why we work, my husband and I. We just do. We are black and white - yin and yang.

For me no good food is illuminated without acidity.

If you have a lot of sweetness and quirkiness, someone's got to have a little bit of bite against that.

A recipe is a story that ends with a good meal.

Will and I are yin and yang. He's all sky, vast and bright and soaring, and I'm all earth. I'm here to ground him, and he's here to help me fly.

Honestly, I think that ghee is underrated. I love using clarified butter. I think it makes vegetables taste so good, especially when you're just cooking at home.

Desserts are all about form and function, about warm and hot and cold. I want every component to hit your palate on different levels at different times.

My biggest nightmare is that something doesn't have enough salt.

Food's not done until it yields something, maybe its soul or maybe just its secrets, and how long you're willing to wait for that to happen is a secret all your own.

I'm fascinated by the yin and yang of everything.

I believe a good chicken breast, if made well, is the best thing ever.

For me, the good food starts with good product.

I think there's a yin and a yang to everything.

If you take the yin-yang, it has a piece of the other inside itself. You can't be too much of one thing and be balanced.

Given a choice I want to do a yin and yang tattoo on the middle of my chest and right next to my heart.

We're always in the middle of two energies. Gravity is sinking you down; inspiration is pulling you up.

I don't believe pumpkin pie is even made from pumpkin. I mean, how can something that smells that shitty make a pie so sweet? There's not enough sugar in the universe.

When I saw that combination of grace and power, the fast and the soft, the yin and the yang, that's what I'd been looking for.