LOVE YOUR SHELF
“THE WAYS IN WHICH WE LOOK AT AND INTERACT WITH FOOD HAVE SHIFTED DRAMATICALLY, says Yotam Ottolenghi, talking about his latest book created, as it was, during a global pandemic. “People are looking for comfort over innovation; improvisation in place of strict recipes, and Shelf Love is less about being groundbreaking than about cooking things we recognise and like.”
The first in a brand-new series to come out of the formidable Ottolenghi Test Kitchen, or OTK, as it’s affectionately known, Shelf Love feels like a clean break, a back-to-basics ode to “that shelf in the back of your pantry”. It strikes the perfect balance between inspiration and aspiration, helping you access comfort in ways that seem almost too simple to work, with ingredients you are likely to have already shopped thanks to “the Ottolenghi effect” (I’m looking at you, black limes!), but whose potential you have yet to unlock.
Yotam’s co-author is Bahraini culinary powerhouse Noor Murad, who also heads up the team of food thinkers and doers at the OTK. Having joined them in 2016, Noor has developed recipes for a number of Ottolenghi projects, including the Masterclass series and some of OTK’s most innovative online content. Her own online presence is bright with enthusiasm and her Instagram feed (@noorishbynoor) is filled with recipes largely inspired by her Bahraini roots, with strong Indian, Persian and Arabic overtones.
“Training the individuals on our team who started out doing basic jobs in the kitchen to become head chefs and front-of-house staff to become managers has been so rewarding,” says Yotam of the way his food empire has grown.
“We love to grow the team from the inside instead of calling on ‘experts’. I believe that that’s how our industry should work. If you’ve got talent and put in the work, then you’ll be given the resources to realise your creative ideas.”
had its challenges. “A lot of how we have been cooking has changed, and reflects this,” says Noor. “We all struggled to source ingredients we’re usually able to get easily, and we applied this new challenge to reveal a humbler tin, bottle and jar way of cooking that’s accessible no matter where you are in the
