If there is a word that is synonymous with ‘Ottolenghi’ cuisine, it’s flavour. It’s fitting then, that Flavour is the title of his eighth cookbook, co-authored by rising culinary star Ixta Belfrage. The third part in a trilogy of books that hero vegetables, Flavour is preceded by best-selling tomes Plenty and Plenty More. Where the Plenty books have shed light on the versatility of vegetables, Flavour distinguishes itself by exploring them via a deep dive into the cooking process, ingredient pairings and umami-rich produce. And it sure does pack a punch.

The three Ps, process, pairings and produce, serve as a guide to the book, and process is where Ottolenghi begins, describing his first memory of cooking over fire and the early realisation of the complex transformation of an ingredient through the cooking process. “In Israel when I was growing up we had a bonfire night once a year. I remember throwing potatoes and onions into the fire and coals, picking them out after a few hours when the flames had subsided and holding this potato, which was essentially a black ball of heat,” he explains. Peeling back the skin of the potato, trying not to burn himself, he remembers: “It was like a genius moment – I was three, or four, or five, but I’d cooked something. That was a real revelatory experience of what it is like to cook.”

With evocative, primal visions of cooking conjured, the chef moves to explain how pairings, and 20 carefully selected ingredients, became intrinsic to the recipes that he and Belfrage decided to include. “It really is about the flavour bombs. We wanted to find new flavours that are intense, and will really add something to the vegetables.” Among the Ottolenghi essentials are ingredients that will be equal parts familiar and new to his global following, from miso, anchovies and mango pickle, to lesser-known black lime, cascabel chillies and Korean fermented chilli paste gochujang. 

Ottolenghi is well-known for introducing ingredients to the mainstream: pantries that were once filled with balsamic vinegar and store-bought pesto have been restocked with Middle Eastern staples like pomegranate molasses, tahini and rosewater. With black garlic added to my shopping list (I’m delighted to find I have every other required ingredient in my cupboard and fridge), I set off to trial a recipe from the produce chapter of the book, choosing a handmade olive oil flatbread with three-garlic butter. Here, Ottolenghi showcases the palpable power of produce. A recipe that, on the surface, is a pimped-up garlic bread, is, in fact, an elastic dough that simultaneously delivers on crunch and chew, topped with an intoxicating garlic butter made so rich in umami through the fearless triple-threat combination of homemade roasted garlic, smoky black garlic and a hint of raw garlic, all finished with a clever, balancing topping of fresh tomato. It is, indeed, a flavour bomb, and demonstrates how harnessing the diverse ways that single ingredients can be used can deliver extraordinary, delicious results. 

Flavour takes a liberal, pragmatic approach to integrating a burgeoning desire for the home cook to be able to create flavour-packed, ethical vegan dishes at home. In the 100 recipes of the book, 45 are vegan, and a further 17 can be easily ‘veganised’. It’s a choice, Ottolenghi says, that made sense to the way people are cooking and eating right now: “Demand for vegan food has become very popular with home cooking. This book in particular has a broad church approach to eating, and people making decisions about what they eat.” While vegan food features heavily in the book, Ottolenghi says that he wants the people cooking his recipes not to be bound by that. In the same way that recipes can be veganised, the 45 vegan recipes can also become flexitarian, seasoned with fish sauce, or finished with Parmigiano Reggiano, for example. The recipes and ingredients are building blocks to creating your own flavour profiles.

On navigating lockdown with his husband, Karl, and their two sons, Flynn, five, and Max, seven, it was all about child-friendly food – nothing fancy, no chilli, less garlic, just comforting, homely foods. “One night I put chicken in a pot with spaghetti. I browned the chicken and added tomato paste, thyme, and broke the pasta and threw it all in with water and it turned into this casserole. And luckily the pasta kind of stuck to the bottom of the pan and became crispy. Then I put it under the grill so the top became crispy too because I put breadcrumbs on top. And that for me became a very ‘lockdown’ dish, because you do it in one pan, quite quickly, and everybody likes it.”

He also observes some positive outcomes of the pandemic. “In some ways, the lockdown has been amazing. People have connected and talked about their newly found love of cooking. I’ve always known that not everyone loves to cook. But quite a few people contacted me on social media and said it was the first time that they’ve properly cooked a recipe, and sat down and taken the time to cook.” It’s this new passion for cooking that has been noticeably reflected worldwide, a reminder of how food connects us, comforts us, and keeps us united. 

Another conversation that’s had almost as much airtime in lockdown as homemade sourdough is cultural appropriation in recipes. “This has become a question that is being asked all over the world. It’s a very complicated subject. It’s complicated not because there aren’t clear answers, but because there are lots of different types of scenarios, and each one deserves a different treatment,” he offers.

“I often ask myself in conversations about cultural appropriation: who holds the power and who loses and who gains from this conversation? I think cooking other people’s food is the best thing in the world; that’s what makes food so exciting today. I would never want to stop the exchange of knowledge and information and cooking techniques. It becomes complex in our world when processes happen much more quickly,” he says. “It’s very easy for someone to cook someone else’s food without giving them full credit for their creations. It’s very important to mention what is the source of the inspiration, where it comes from, how it has evolved, who has created it, maybe mention the circumstances, the culture that has created it which is maybe not as lucky and fortunate as your culture.”

On his own recipe for za’atar cacio e pepe in the new book, where the Roman classic is revamped with tangy za’atar, a spice blend of oregano, sesame and sumac from the Middle East, Ottolenghi explains: “If I make a za’atar cacio e pepe, I think Italian food culture is strong enough and thriving, and powerful enough to withstand it. It’s a very powerful food culture and we all love it and we all use it,” he says. “It’s really important to know where the power balance lies, what’s at stake. Who is cooking whose food, and just tell the whole story. To me, that’s the crux of it. And I’ve always tried to be very open about where the food comes from, where I get my inspiration, where I travelled, what I’ve seen and how I have translated it into something I cook and share with my readers.” 

Looking to the future, Ottolenghi hints at the possibility of an Australian outpost one day, once his UK restaurants are re-established post-pandemic. “My aspiration now is really just to bring things back as much as possible. The world is a different world, but we need to bring our businesses back on their feet and have busy restaurants again,” he explains.

“After that Australia is definitely a place I would love to open a restaurant one day. I really love to be close to my restaurants and Australia is so far away so it’s a very tricky proposition to imagine, but who knows. I think after Covid so many opportunities and so many new ideas will surface and this might be the one that catches, so who knows.” Until then, we can always dream and, of course, cook from this wonderful new cookbook. 

Ottolenghi FLAVOUR by Yotam Ottolenghi & Ixta Belfrage (RRP $55) is released September 3 and available in all good bookstores and online retailers. Find an exclusive extract in the October issue of delicious. on sale, September 17, 2020.

Join delicious. Food Director Phoebe Wood as she chats with Yotam Ottolenghi in the final episode of our no-waste podcast, Use it up. Tune in to hear all about his brand new cookbook, Flavour, and why he’s a fan of the freezer, but not of the fridge. To listen, head to Apple Podcasts now.