Yotam Ottolenghi Quotes

My family is delighted every time I cook maitake. Our taste buds awaken in anticipation of its rich, deep and nuanced flavors.

Leeks are normally given the job of flavouring other things, such as stocks and soups, but I find their creaminess and sweet, oniony flavour very satisfying.

I love hot edamame with truffle sauce.

Salbitxada is a sharp and lightly sweet Catalan sauce that's traditionally served with calcots - spring or salad onions, grilled whole, make a good substitute.

I love Indian food - it's my favourite cuisine. I love the mixture of spices and the subtle flavours. It's really erotic; the spices are so sensuous.

The addition of vinaigrette to freshly roasted vegetables gives them a freshness and juiciness they don't normally have; the acidity brings out new shades of flavour, too.

Chocolate is the first luxury. It has so many things wrapped up in it: Deliciusness in the moment, childhood memories, and that grin-inducing feeling of getting a reward for being good.

My favorite fall meal has to be a simple roasted chicken. Ina Garten does a fabulous one. There is just something about roasting your own chicken and vegetables that screams 'fall' and 'home' to me.

Marinating chicken in miso adds lots of character to the meat with little work.

My cooking is simply ingredients plus umami.

I love the smell of frying liver. It kind of releases a sweetness into the air, and it kind of prickles your nose, and it kind of makes you awake... it gets me excited.

My favorite dish is brown rice with lentils, roasted red and yellow peppers, and fennel, with a sweet potato and a salad on the side.

The combination of olive oil, garlic and lemon juice lifts the spirits in winter.

Homemade stuffing is my favorite thing about Thanksgiving. I wish people served it more than just once a year.

Barley and mushroom is a soothing combination. It's mainly a textural thing, with the barley both gently breaking and enhancing the mushroomy gloopiness.

My maternal grandmother made fantastic ox tongue with velvety roasted potatoes. She cooked sweet red cabbage and lovely cauliflower with butter and bread crumbs.

Soup is a lot like a family. Each ingredient enhances the others; each batch has its own characteristics; and it needs time to simmer to reach full flavor.

I feed on good soup, not beautiful language.

Down South, even our vegetables have some pig hidden somewhere in it. A vegetable isn't a vegetable without a little ham hock.

I just really, really love food, so I don't have a favourite. But if I had to pick one to eat every day, it would be Italian. But I also love Chinese and Japanese food.

The West is color. Its colors are animal rather than vegetable, the colors of earth and sunlight and ripeness.

I think steak is the ultimate comfort food, and if you're going out for one, that isn't the time to scrimp on calories or quality.

Asian food is very easy to like because it hits your mouth very differently than European food does. In European food, there may be two things to hit - maybe sweet and salty, maybe salty-savory, but Asian kind of works around, plus you have that distinct flavor that's usually working in Asian food.

I didn't want to write a cheffy cookbook with dehydrated ham chips.

My food, I think, is big. It's aggressive, it's aggressively seasoned, and it's hearty.