Usually for the launch of a new book you might be lucky to have a quick chat with the author as you move through a queue to get their book signed!
But not so for chef and restaurateur Yotam Ottolenghi, who has launched his latest cookbook Comfort. We joined him at his Bicester Village restaurant to taste-test some of the recipes along for dozens of others who were lucky enough to get a ticket to the sold-out event.
On arrival we were offered a welcome cocktail – Tamarind Daiquiri made from El Dorado three-year rum, alphonso mango, tamarind, chamoy, tajin (or a non-alcoholic version). Mine was the non-alcoholic version, the glass dipped in a spicy coating reminiscent of the popping candy you ate as a child – it was however delicious.
The food, each course served as a sharing plate, was all vegetarian and it was delicious. We had ‘Easy cheesy rice cakes’, ‘creamy aubergine Caesar dip with crudites’, ‘cauliflower and butternut pakoras’, ‘butter-braised kohlrabi with olive chimichurri’, ‘roasted carrots with curry leaf dukkah’, ‘butternut, tamarind and coconut stew with bread rolls’. For desert was ‘brownie cookies with tahini cream and halva’. If I had to pick a favourite it would be the butternut stew – it’s definitely one I would like to try and recreate at home!
The book is written by four members of the Ottolenghi team – Yotam Ottolenghi, Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller and Tara Wigley, who all brought together memories, childhoods, and travels to explore what comfort food meant.
The event had a lovely relaxed atmosphere, both Yotam and Verena were at the Bicester event and during the evening sat with diners to chat about the food, the decision to offer an all-vegetarian menu for the evening; the cooking process and answer any of our burning questions. The pair also took time to pose for photos and sign copies of their Comfort book.
With over 100 recipes, including classic new takes on pasta and potatoes, traybakes, noodles, curries, soups and sweet things, Ottolenghi Comfort is full of dishes that represent the team’s interpretation of comfort. We enjoyed hearing about their weekly meetings, as they put together the book each brought a dish for the others to sample, and then worked to narrow down what would be included.
Ottolenghi cookbooks are published in 23 languages, and worldwide sales now exceed 11 million copies.
Yotam said: “This book is full of dishes which feel familiar yet fresh. It is also very much about our personal journeys, and all the stories these journeys contain. Food and words have an incredible power to connect. Our hope is that these recipes become for you what they are for us: reassuring on the one hand and eye-opening on the other.”
The book has just been released and the team have shared some of the recipes with the Oxfordshire Guardian for readers to try.
To find out more about Yotam Ottolenghi The Comfort Tour, or to book tickets more details are here.
Ottolenghi Comfort cookbook Recipes
Here are some samples from the book to make your mouth water
Puttanesca-style salmon traybake
Green tea noodles with avocado and relish
German-style sausage rolls with honey mustard
Cheeseball lemon rice with chilli butter
Butter beans with roasted cherry tomatoes
Chicken with Steph’s spice
Egg sambal shakshuka
Verena’s potato salad
Helen’s Bolognese
Chocolate ripple fridge cake
About the Comfort cookbook authors
Yotam Ottolenghi is the restauranteur and chef-patron of nine Ottolenghi delis, as well as the NOPI and ROVI restaurants. He is the author of ten bestselling and multi-award-winning cookery books. Yotam has been a weekly columnist for the Saturday Guardian for over sixteen years and is a regular contributor to the New York Times. His commitment to the championing of vegetables, as well as ingredients once seen as ‘exotic’, has led to what some call ‘The Ottolenghi effect’. This is shorthand for the creation of a meal which is full of colour, flavour, bounty, and surprise. Yotam lives in London with his family.
Helen Goh was born in Malaysia and migrated with her family to Australia at the age of ten. After studying psychology, she combined psychotherapy practice with a cooking career, becoming head pasty chef at a landmark Melbourne restaurant before moving to London, and joining Ottolenghi. Co-author with Yotam, of the best-selling baking book SWEET, she has worked closely with him in recipe development for over 10 years, drawing widely on Asian, Western and Middle Eastern influences in her cooking. Helen is also a successful food columnist whose recipes appear in the Sydney Morning Herald, Guardian and Observer. She lives in London with her husband and two sons. instagram.com/helen_goh_bakes
Verena Lochmuller is a recipe and product developer. She was born in Germany, grew up in Scotland and studied pastry and baking arts in New York City. She has been at Ottolenghi since 2015 and is now the Head of Food Quality Product Development at the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen. She has created sweet and savoury products that have become staples at Ottolenghi delis, and curated dessert menus for the group’s restaurants. Verena has contributed her recipes to two Ottolenghi Test Kitchen books: Shelf Love and Extra Good Things, as well as other online Ottolenghi publications. Verena brings a playful touch to familiar, comforting recipes by using unexpected ingredients and techniques. She firmly believes that a good pastry recipe is a secret weapon in
Tara Wigley worked in publishing for the best part of a decade before switching to food and writing in 2010. She trained at the Ballymaloe cookery school, in Ireland, before starting to work with Yotam Ottolenghi in 2011. Initially testing recipes, she soon became Yotam’s writing collaborator on his columns in the Guardian magazine and the New York Times as well as the cookbooks Plenty More, Nopi, Sweet and Flavour. Tara co-authored Ottolenghi Simple and Falastin. Her first solo book, How to Butter Toast – a collection of rhymes about recipes – was published in 2023. instagram.com/tara.wigley
