Yotam Ottolenghi arrived in the UK from his native Israel in 1997 and set out on a new career in food, after having completed an MA in Comparative Literature whilst working as a journalist in Tel Aviv.
In London he attended The Cordon Bleu after which he worked as a pastry chef in various establishments.In 2002 Yotam and his partners set up Ottolenghi, a unique food shop offering a wide range of freshly made savoury dishes, baked products and patisserie items. There are now four Ottolenghi's, as well as NOPI, a brasserie style restaurant in Soho, London.
Since 2006 Ottolenghi writes a column in The Guardian's Weekend Saturday magazine. Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, written with Sami Tamimi, was published in May 2008. Plenty, published in 2010, became an international bestseller and won the Galaxy National Book Award and translated to many languages.
Jerusalem, also written with Tamimi, came out in 2012. In 2011 Yotam presented the documentary 'Jerusalem on a Plate' on BBC4.
