Yotam Ottolenghi

Chef, food writer and best-selling cookbook author, Yotam Ottolenghi, has become a household name, teaching the British public how to put bold Middle-Eastern recipes and veg-championing dishes on the table. He has co-authored and published eight cookbooks, including Plenty and Jerusalem, SIMPLE , FLAVOUR , Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love and his latest one, Ottolenghi COMFORT; a love letter to food and all the different ways it brings comfort and shapes a sense of identity and belonging. Ottolenghi is also a weekly columnist for The Guardian.

Before becoming Britain’s best-loved cook of vibrant Middle Eastern food, Ottolenghi completed a Masters degree in philosophy and literature while working on the news desk of an Israeli daily, before coming to London in 1997. He started his career in food as an assistant pastry chef at the Capital and then worked at Kensington Place, Launceston Place, Maison Blanc and Baker and Spice, before starting his own eponymous group of restaurants and food shops, in conjunction with his friend and business partner, Sami Tamimi. Ottolenghi now has branches in Notting Hill, Islington, Belgravia and Kensington. He opened his restaurant NOPI in Piccadilly in 2011 and ROVI in Fitzrovia in 2018.