This week Helena Lee considers community and food in Yotam Ottolenghis new television series
The truth about Yotam Ottolenghis food is that its vibrancy and flavour improves your mood. I defy anyone to eat his aubergine with yogurt and pomegranate, or roast butternut squash - sweet with molasses, in unsmiling manner. His recipes are failsafe I once decided to cook five recipes from the Ottolenghi app in one night; what was once dinner grew into a feast and the number of diners I invited had to double. Most taxing was putting together the shopping list, however, my self-inflicted logistical nightmare paid off. Harissa-marinated sirloin followed honeyed chicken with saffron and hazelnuts, a bulghur wheat salad laced with caramelised onions was an easy win. There is true skill in communicating heart with food.
As many who have eaten at his delis will know, the centre of this plentiful food is community and this is none so clear as in his series Ottolenghis Mediterranean Feast (Channel 4) which airs on Sunday. His culinary journey along the Mediterranean takes him to Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Israel - the place of his birth. Its very rare to see people eating as couples, he told me last August after hed just finished the programme. Whats common to all these places is that eating is always a communal experience with big families, big groups of people. This is what feeding is about. They are all eating from big bowls often eating with their hands theres that kind of immediacy with food.
READ ABOUT OTTOLENGHIS ONLINE STORE
I watched the series when it was on More 4 late last year. Scenes are saturated with the kind of Middle Eastern light we yearn to wake up to. In his open hearted way, Ottolenghi explores a culture and a country in each episode through its dishes and communities. He visits canteens in Tel Aviv that are fuelling the cult of hummus with fluffy pitas and pickled chilli juice. He follows fishermen on rickety boats in Tunisia, and sizzles red mullet by the shore. Sitting with my partner in a cold restaurant, with air conditioning and quiet music in the background is the most uninspiring way to eat food, he once told me, evoking the sad restaurants weve all experienced at one time or another. I just want to be out and about eating on the street. Food is related to the social they really go hand in hand. He presents an idyll that comes from the people he meets with the fresh food he searches for. What better way to cheer up a cold Sunday night?
Ottolenghis Mediterranean Feast airs 7pm Sunday 24th February on Channel 4
READ LAST WEEKS FOOD IN FASHION ON EATING OUT AT THE RESTAURANT BAR
Written by Helena Lee
