Quotes from Yotam Ottolenghi

Dried porcini add a substantial, deep flavour to otherwise more neutral vegetables. I use them in risottos, mashed roots and winter soups.

The difference between brown and white rice is that the former is not milled. With the outer bran and germ intact, the rice is therefore chewier and nuttier.

You don't need a machine to make pasta: a rolling pin and a fast hand can create a smooth, if thick, sheet.

Infants have around 30,000 tastebuds, only about a third of which survive into adulthood, so a child's sensitivity towards extremes of sweet, sour and bitter flavours is heightened.

Brunch, for me, is an extended breakfast that should be enjoyed whenever you have time properly to engage in cooking and eating.

Breakfast is always the best time for something juicy, sweet and fresh - it just feels like the right way to open the day. There's no right way, though, when it comes to choosing the fruit.

Blanching the cloves removes the harsh and bitter bite of raw garlic.

I have been cooking with preserved lemon for years, using it left, right and centre, but I am still far from reaching my limit.

Eating ready-made meals is about being very passive, and actively cooking is something that nothing compares to.

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.

The main distinction for fresh chillies is whether they are red or green, the difference being one of ripeness.

Apart from its famous healing properties, manuka has a strong, woody flavour.

Custard is controversial: what makes it a custard, how best to cook it and, crucially, is it to be eaten or put in a pie and thrown?

There is nothing like a good old recipe. If it has lasted, then it is good.

Most of my recipes start life in the domestic kitchen, and even those that start out in the restaurant kitchen have to go through the domestic kitchen.

I can't stand recipes that don't have background.

I like to talk about food, ingredients, and how to adapt recipes. It's a dialogue.

I adore recipes that make use of one cut of meat or a whole animal to create a complex dish, loaded with flavour.

Too many books are full of recipes that aren't doable at home. They are purely aspirational. They are quite frightening, even for me.

I tend to mean what I say: in life, generally; in recipes, certainly.

Like parents, cooks shouldn't have favourites, but some recipes inevitably shine more than others.

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

The combination of lentils with rice or bulgur is the absolute height of Levantine comfort food. I could eat it every day.

Herbs deserve to be used much more liberally.