Top 176 Quotes by Yotam Ottolenghi

When I was a kid, there was always food to be had on the street in Jerusalem, but anything above a falafel stand was mediocre or worse.

Date syrup is a natural sweetener that has wonderful richness and treacly depth; I drizzle it over semolina porridge.

The kitchen is tough. It's one of the last bastions in civilized culture that sets out to crush the spirit.

I always preferred my father's pasta the next day, when he'd put it in a hot oven with heaps of extra cheese. It would emerge slightly burned and very crisp on top.

I don't do guilt. Whatever I do, I do it happily.

Good asparagus needs minimal treatment and is best eaten with few other ingredients.

One of the troubles with food is that people take themselves too seriously. This is why I'm very happy for people to change my recipes, alter them, replace one ingredient for another.

I have a terrible tendency to lick my fingers when I cook. So much so that I got a telling off from my pastry teacher years ago, who said it would hinder my prospects.

If I am honest, my food is actually quite far removed from both the food of my mother and my father.

There are many reasons I feel at home in the U.K., but if I were asked to pinpoint the moment I knew I'd arrived, it might well be when I realised the British shared my love of fritters.