Yotam Ottolenghi is a Israeli-British chef whose passion for food blossomed into owning restaurants, delis, and regular writing gigs about food in the media, which includes publishing some bestselling cookbooks on the side.

His latest offering, Ottolenghi SIMPLE, is a gem. Each recipe is flagged with a colour coded system to help you quickly discover what sort of recipe it is: ‘10 ingredients or less’, food you can ‘make ahead’, recipes that are great if you’re ‘short on time’, good food for ‘lazy cooks’ or recipes that are ‘easier than you think’. It takes a while to get in the swing and remember this system but once you do it helpful when browsing recipes to find ones that suit what type of cook you are, or for what occasion you are cooking for.

There are so many simple but delicious recipes in this book. A lot would make fabulous side dishes. Some are so simple but have a twist that makes them different and interesting, such as sweet potato chips tossed with polenta, sumac and cloves.

Ottolenghi expects you to have 10 basic ingredients in your cupboard, like onions, garlic, parmesan cheese and olive oil. Then he lists 10 ingredients he assumes you won’t have in your pantry but wants you to go and buy. They are his favourite little flavour bombs. They all have a long shelf life and feature throughout the book. They include barberries (a new discovery for me), sumac, rose harissa, preserved lemons, and Za’atar.

If I could sum up this book in one word it would be YUM. This book has become a firm staple in my kitchen, right next to Neil Perry’s Simply Good Food.

Reviewed by Rowena Morcom