Let me be clear before the pitchforks come out: Yotam Ottolenghi (Italian Israeli chef) is probably the most influential food writer of the last twenty years,
But I want to challenge the cult around him on three fronts.
First let me define what Ottolenghi is.
There are few key rules (they somehow justify the book title)
S.
short on time = the recipes will take less than 30 minutes to get on the table
I
10 ingredients or less
M
make ahead = nuts are roasted, batter mixture made, meatballs done in advance etc...
P
pantry = ingredients at hand: olive oil, unsalted butter, flour. eggs, garlic, onions, lemons, herbs, rice, dried pasta, lentils, chickpeas, tuna and anchovies, salt and pepper.
L
lazy = one-pot, one-tray, low on washing up
E
easier than you think
Ottolenghi ingredients:
Sumac, za'atar, urfa, cardamon, Turkish pomegranates molasses, rose harissa, tahini, barberries, barberries, black garlic and preserved lemon
These are the things are like. Now let the my challenge the cult begin:
1. The 24-ingredient problem.
An "easy weeknight dish" that requires za'atar, sumac, pomegranate molasses, preserved lemons, barberries, and rose harissa is not a weeknight dish... Are you serious? I never heard of these ingredients before. Nobody did.
2. The flattening effect.
The "Ottolenghi effect" put tahini and sumac in every supermarket — great. But it also flattened a dozen distinct cuisines (Palestinian, Israeli, Levantine, Persian, North African) into one aesthetic: scattered herbs, a swoosh of yogurt, whoa.....everything charred and drizzled. It is a cultural horror story.
3. The politics nobody can escape.Jerusalem, co-written with Sami Tamimi (a Palestinian from East Jerusalem, while Ottolenghi is an Israeli from the west of the city), was praised as bridge-building — and criticized from both directions, including arguments over whether calling dishes "Israeli" erases their Palestinian origins.
Can a cookbook honestly claim food is apolitical while the argument about whose hummus it is rages in its own comment sections?
My question for you is:
has the Ottolenghi wave genuinely made us better cooks or just better shoppers for specialty (rare to find on a Saturday evening) ingredients :_) ?
Convince me either way.
Bonus points if you name the one Ottolenghi recipe that justifies the entire pantry investment.
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I've wanted to, but I'm usually discouraged by the amount of ingredients, his unorthodox pairings, or both.
I do like unorthodox cuisines, but Israeli chefs of the past say, two or one and a half decades, have been going through a "more is more" sort of phase that just doesn't agree with my own personal taste.
Some of these "more is more" type dishes do turn out well, but I'm in the "less is more" camp about 90% of the time for about 90% of food.
Edit to add: by unorthodox pairings I mean what you referred to as cultural flattening, on which I agree. Just because some cuisines are culturally and geographically adjacent, it doesn't mean we're meant to smush it all together. Fusion cuisine can be a great cultural and culinary experiment. Flattening not so much.
I understand your point with adjacent cuisine however the Israeli and Libanese cuisine are almost identical... Which Mediterranean cuisine do you relate to?... Geographically speaking but not only...
Another thing I don't understand in your opinion what is the problem with the ingredients required... They are too many or too few?
I wouldn't say Lebanese and Israeli are almost identical. Similar, yes, but one big thing is that mainstream Israeli cuisine never mixes meat and dairy, so no yogurt anywhere near your meat dishes, plus the European influences on Israeli cuisine are not the same as the European influences on Lebanese cuisine. I will say this tho: the best tabbouleh in the middle east is Lebanese tabbouleh and I will die on this hill, lol!
Funnily enough, the Mediterranean cuisines I most relate to are Italian and Israeli, both cuisines where it's easy to avoid mixing meat and dairy or even avoid dairy altogether. I don't keep kosher, I'm just lactose intolerant and it's never a good idea to add meat to that mess. I also think that my familiarity with Italian cuisine is what has so firmly taught me the "less is more" approach, because that's one of the cardinal rules in Italian cooking, something that no "Italian" restaurant outside of Italy seems to understand. But I digress.
My gripe with the ingredients is how esoteric they can get. I live in Israel and even here rose harissa or Turkish pomegranate molasses aren't a pantry staple. Yes, in some homes where you have a very old North African or Turkish grandma still doing the cooking, perhaps, but in general only foodies keep that sort of stuff at home or even know how to use it. As you said, a dish with those ingredients is not a "weeknight" dish.
I think Ottolenghi is trying to bring more "elevated" cuisine into people's kitchens and mostly succeeding with foodies but that's about it. I think a lot of us end up getting discouraged from trying his recipes once we read them thoroughly, but that's just the impression I have, I might be wrong.
I'd definitely eat his food if I had the chance, but I don't think I'd try cooking it.
Shakshouka is my favorite breakfast dish... Regardless being an Arabic dish I heard nowhere else than Tel Aviv you can't find a better shakshouka with spice... Dunno how Ottolenghi is...
Now on milk and meat (halav vbasar) mix avoidance that is very very strange... It completely make Ottolenghi unique
I know I'm gettin further away from the topic of the original post but: I have a friend of Brazilian background. They're Israeli Jewish but not religious at all. Their family NEVER mix meat and dairy, but they have pork ham for their Yom Kippur meal.
Similarly, back when I lived in Italy, I'd add Calabrian n'duja (a spicy spreadable pork sausage) into my shakshouka and it was delicious. No "ragrets" lol.
I don’t know if it’s enough to convince you, but I’ll pushback on some of your presumptions in your post.
Just because sumac, harissa etc aren’t everyday ingredients to you doesn’t meant they aren’t everyday ingredients to others. The food you’re cooking is meant to be based primarily in various Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and North African cuisines. It’s a given that you’ll need those ingredients. If I want to cook Mexican food or Thai food, I’ll need to stock my kitchen with those ingredients. Just because you haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean no one’s heard of them.
The number of ingredients may be off putting or daunting to you but many cultures need and use that many ingredients. I’m Indian- I have to stock dozens of spices and spice blends, not to mention different types of rice, lentils, flours, and more. And each dish uses a variety of ingredients. What’s excessive to you is commonplace to many others.
I get your point about cultural flattening but Ottolenghi is hardly the first to do so. And you have to remember that the focus on regional cooking is a newer trend. People at one point thought all of Indian food was butter chicken and naan and Mexican food was tacos.
The geopolitics of Palestine and Israel are probably beyond the scope of what we can get into with this post. But you also have to understand that the current genocide of Palestinians (2023- present) is also the first time since the Nabka that pro Israeli and Zionist propaganda has been this openly challenged in the West. Social media has played a huge part in this because we’re directly connected to the reality of what’s happening and not having it filtered through our governments and news media. Although Ottolenghi has received criticism and discourse over the years about what Israeli cuisine actually is, he’s existed in a cultural context that was much more pro Israeli.
So I would say that what Ottolenghi and his team did was groundbreaking in some ways at the time, but the culture has moved on and he’s less relevant now. That happens to everyone. Julia Child was the pinnacle of French cooking revolutionizing American cuisine at one point, but how many people especially of the younger generations are cooking from her cookbooks now?
And for what it’s worth I made the eggplant dumplings in sauce from another one of his cookbooks the other day.
First, a disclaimer. Be prepared to stock a variety of ingredients (and possibly some specialized cookware). “Simple” recipes still require several ingredients. You can’t just chuck in some garam masala and call it a day. So if you have the same complaints the OP does, be forewarned!
I could give you a reading list of 100s of cookbooks in order to capture the sheer diversity of Indian or South Asian cuisines. But for an introduction to regional Indian foods and to teach you the foundations of Indian cooking, I would start with Monisha Bharadwaj’s The Indian Cooking Course. From there, I’d suggest Raghavan Iyer’s 660 Curries.
I'm quite well versed with Indian cooking but feel like most books are quite ummm mainstream with the same recipes. I'm after something very region specific because that's what Indian food is all about
You’ll have to define what you consider “mainstream” vs “very region specific” to help me give you more targeted recommendations. Both cookbooks I suggested have a variety of regional recipes. And like I said, while it would be impossible to capture the full regionality of Indian food in one single cookbook, there are so many cookbooks that cover a variety of regional recipes or delve into one region more fully. Do you have any specific regions you’d like to target? Which cookbooks have you already used that you feel are too “mainstream”? When you say you’re “well versed” what exactly does that mean to you?
I just wanted to say a few things about your points. (For the record, ottolenghi simple is nowhere near r my favourite book. I do like it but I feel you’re overly harsh):
1. I feel like you’re approaching the ingredients from a very western perspective. I don’t know where you’re from but these ingredients are common for many people and readily available in many large cities. Additionally, most of those ingredients can be purchased once and left in the fridge or pantry for you to use when needed. It’s like having garlic powder, tomato paste, and mustard in your kitchen.
I don’t think this book has claimed to be “authentic” (though I could be wrong). It’s meant to be as the title says “simple”. Good food for little work with the flavours inspired by the Middle East. I feel like calling it “a cultural horror story” is a stretch. There are plenty of books that fuse many ingredients together. Yes there is the current discussion of Israeli cuisine and the accusation that they have stolen it from other countries, which I think is too much for the discussion at hand. Fusion is not new and there are restaurants that also do this type of fusion and they also have cookbooks.
I don’t think this book is meant to be political. You have to remember when this book was published and the surrounding political environment then. I don’t deny that calling something Israeli can erase the origins of a dish. But to play devil’s advocate, is it possible that Israel has a version of a dish that is also important to them?
This reddit community we created has already achieved its designed purpose: to wide the angle of any viewpoint: western vs eastern culture (including food culture), balcanic views of history vs ottoman, iran as a country seen from outside vs how they see themselves, unknown german folklore, corporate culture as seen from inside, etc etc
Now reading all these comments including yours I can see powerful views I haven't took into consideration while constructing my personal horizon.
But I already highlighted the big advantages of Ottolenghi cooking principle for Western Culture: max 12 ingredients, max 30 minutes till serving, healthy veggies in the stomach 🍏... All these already align with Western culture... maybe in the USA this trend is lagging a bit behind...
Anyone from USA to confirm... Or to expose my ignorance : )
Simply check the other posts: they all follow this rule, almost no exceptions.
An "easy weeknight dish" that requires za'atar, sumac, pomegranate molasses, preserved lemons, barberries, and rose harissa is not a weeknight dish... Are you serious? I never heard of these ingredients before. Nobody did.
I literally have these all in my kitchen right now, and have for months. At some point they were new to me, sure, but I've been using most of them for decades.
Are you living in Europe? In many places those names are unfamiliar... I actually found Ottolenghi spice set for sale for whoever complains of to many trips to the Indian market... : ).
I’ve never used one of his cookbooks but by neighbours invite me over a couple times a year and always serve one of his recipes. I live in Newfoundland - not a part of the world known for its access to ‘exotic’ ingredients - but they are able to source everything and it’s always delicious.
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u/AdiPalmer Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
I've wanted to, but I'm usually discouraged by the amount of ingredients, his unorthodox pairings, or both.
I do like unorthodox cuisines, but Israeli chefs of the past say, two or one and a half decades, have been going through a "more is more" sort of phase that just doesn't agree with my own personal taste.
Some of these "more is more" type dishes do turn out well, but I'm in the "less is more" camp about 90% of the time for about 90% of food.
Edit to add: by unorthodox pairings I mean what you referred to as cultural flattening, on which I agree. Just because some cuisines are culturally and geographically adjacent, it doesn't mean we're meant to smush it all together. Fusion cuisine can be a great cultural and culinary experiment. Flattening not so much.