Ottolenghi: The Cookbook [Hardcover]

Ottolenghi is one of the most iconic and dynamic restaurants in the country. Its unique blend of exquisite, fresh food, abundantly presented in a cutting-edge, elegant environment, has imaginatively redefined people's dining expectations. For the first time, Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi are publishing here their superb sweet and savoury recipes.

Yotam and Sami's inventive yet simple dishes are inspired by their respective childhoods in West and East Jerusalem but rest on numerous other culinary traditions, ranging from North Africa to Lebanon, Italy and California. The 140 original recipes cover everything from accomplished meat and fish main courses, through to many healthy and quick salads and suppers, plus Ottolenghi's famous and delectable cakes and breads.

Ottolenghi: The Cookbook captures the zeitgeist for honest, healthy, bold cooking presented with flair, style and substance. This painstakingly designed book, lavishly photographed book offers the timeless qualities of a cookery classic.

Yotam Ottolenghi's path to the world of cooking and baking has been anything but straightforward. Having completed a Masters degree in philosophy and literature whilst working on the news desk of an Israeli daily, he made a radical shift on coming to London in 1997. He started as an assistant pastry chef at the Capital and then worked at Kensington Place and Launceston Place, where he ran the pastry section. Yotam subsequently worked for Maison Blanc and then Baker and Spice, before starting his own eponymous group of restaurants/food shops, with branches in Notting Hill, Islington and Kensington.

Sami Tamimi's intimate engagement with food started at a tender age, whilst watching his mother prepare Palestinian delicacies at their home within the walls of Arab East Jerusalem. His first job was as a commis chef at the Mount Zion hotel in the city. He thereafter investigated some of his culinary passions, including the food of Yemen, Morocco, Egypt, Persia and even the Eastern European Jewish communities. In 1997 he moved from Tel Aviv to London to work at Baker and Spice, creating a unique traiteur section with the strong identifiable flavours of the Middle East. In 2002 he teamed up with Yotam to open Ottolenghi.