In 'Ottolenghi Comfort,' Yotam Ottolenghi takes an expansive view of comfort food

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4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Yotam Ottolenghi's books are a fixture on the shelves of many home cooks. In his latest cookbook, written with co-authors Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller and Tara Wigley, the Israeli-British chef and restaurateur turns his eye towards comfort food. Ottolenghi Comfort considers the rituals and recipes that produce comfort in our culinary experiences, like the simple acts of holding a bowl or making a one-pot meal. In today's episode, Ottolenghi speaks with Here & Now's Robin Young about the memories we carry with us, whether they're connected to a childhood dish or an Oasis song. They also discuss the chef's perfect equation for comfort food, which often involves cauliflower.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. It seems as if every time I'm at someone's
0:07.1	house these days, and I'm being nosy and looking through their bookshelf, nine times out of ten,
0:13.1	they've got a book by Yotam Otolengi on there. He is a wildly popular chef and cookbook author,
0:18.9	and he's got a new one out now titled Otolangi Comfort,
0:21.8	its recipes, centering comfort food. And in this interview with Here Naz Robin Young, it's clear that
0:27.2	when he's talking about comfort, he's not just talking about what you eat, but also how you eat
0:32.4	and how you make it, because what's more comforting than only having one pot to clean when you're done
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1:05.4	What's your favorite food? Maybe you're digging into it right now.
1:09.3	Mac and cheese, pasta, roasted eggplant, red pepper,
1:12.8	and tomato soup. That looks good. That's a favorite of Tara Wigley, who's joined forces with
1:18.2	Helen Goh and Verena Lachmuller on famed chef Yodan Odlengi's new cookbook, Odlengi Comfort,
1:25.3	destined to add to his list of 10 best-selling books. It's filled with great recipes from all four chefs' kitchens, along with an examination of comfort. What does a bowl have to do with it? And Yodom Otolengi joins us now from the NPR Studios in New York. Welcome back. Thank you. It's so good to be back. And what does a bowl have to do with it?
1:49.5	Holding a bowl of something for many people, including me, gives you comfort.
1:57.2	So it's just the actual act of holding a bowl in your hand before you even reach for the spoon and trying to eat what's inside.
2:03.3	Right. And you say in the introduction, you know, nurture, convenience, nostalgia, indulgence,
2:10.3	there's different genres of comfort food. That's right. I mean, so we really tried to tackle it,
2:17.3	not so much from the predictable place where you say, oh, well, comfort food is mac and cheese and pizza and anything stodgy.
	...

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