Taste the history

Celebrating "the great mumble jumble" that is Middle Eastern food is what Israeli-born restaurateur Yotam Ottolenghi has in mind for his upcoming trip down under. 

- DAVID COHEN

Ah, summer. Time to dice a chilled cucumber and a couple of tomatoes, toss them in a bowl with a bunch of chopped herbs and spring onions, then drizzle pomegranate-infused oil and lemon over the lot.

This year, you’ll not only be preparing an Arab salad – or an Israeli salad, or just a Jerusalem salad, depending on your darned politics – fit for the scalding days of the season, you’ll also be prepping for the arrival of celebrity chef Yotam Ottolenghi on his longpostponed New Zealand tour.

Now’s the time to put in a little practice ahead of what promise to be engrossing presentations in Auckland and Wellington. Part of which will have to do with what Now’s the time to put in a little practice ahead of what promise to be engrossing presentations in Auckland and Wellington. Part of which will have to do with what the 54-year-old London-based restaurateur hails as “the great mumble jumble of food” that we call Middle Eastern cuisine, and the scores of spiced variations therein.

Ottolenghi arrives on a plane this month, but for many locals, he first came to the country on the printed page more than a decade ago. Of the dozen or so books he has written or co-authored, Jerusalem, a monster publishing hit at the time in this country and still a perennial seller, is the work with which his name is most immediately associated.