Yotam Ottolenghi's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Yotam Ottolenghi recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Yotam Ottolenghi's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

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The River Cottage Meat Book

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

4.6

First published in the United Kingdom, THE RIVER COTTAGE MEAT BOOK quickly became an underground hit among food cognoscenti around the world. Now tailored for American cooks, this loving, authoritative, and galvanizing ode to good meat is one part manifesto on high-quality, local, and sustainable meat production; two parts guide to choosing and storing meats and fowl; and three parts techniques an

Recommended by Giles Coren and Yotam Ottolenghi.

Yotam Ottolenghi

He looks at how the animals are reared, and allows you to make an informed and moral choice about what you are eating. [source]

Giles Coren

This book is crucial because it ties together the ethics of food production with what you put in your mouth. [source]

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen

Harold McGee

4.6

Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is a kitchen classic. Hailed by Time magazine as "a minor masterpiece" when it first appeared in 1984, On Food and Cooking is the bible to which food lovers and professional chefs worldwide turn for an understanding of where our foods come from, what exactly they're made of, and how cooking transforms them into something new and delicious. Now, for its twentieth

Recommended by Chris Young, Henry Dimbleby, Rose Levy Beranbaum, and 1 others.

Yotam Ottolenghi

McGee is very clear and to the point. Despite the fact that he is quite technical, it’s never boring. [source]

Chris Young

My career starts with this book in many ways. There wouldn’t be any of this modern cooking movement without this book, I don’t think. [source]

Henry Dimbleby

He looks at the science of making a mayonnaise, and how much egg yolk you need to make a certain amount. [source]

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Deborah Madison

4.3

The tenth anniversary edition of this landmark cookbook, with more than 325,000 copies in print, includes a new introduction from Deborah Madison, America’s leading authority on vegetarian cooking.

What Julia Child is to French cooking, Deborah Madison is to vegetarian cooking—a demystifier and definitive guide to the subject. After her many years as a teacher and writer, she realized that there wa

Recommended by Yotam Ottolenghi.

Yotam Ottolenghi

A few years ago, I got the brief to write a vegetarian column for The Guardian. I’m not a vegetarian, so I wanted to write the column as a challenge – and I must say it was a bit of a challenge. The idea of having to cook exclusively with vegetables was initially a difficult concept. To start with, I had plenty of ideas, but after about six months I realised I was sort of running out of things. [source]

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Star Desserts

Emily Luchetti

4.6

Recommended by Yotam Ottolenghi.

Yotam Ottolenghi

I don’t know much about Emily Luchetti, apart from the fact she was the pastry chef at a very famous restaurant in San Francisco called Star during the late 80s and the 90s. She also wrote another book, Four-Star Desserts; I have a very warm place in my heart for both. One of my first placements was as a pastry chef, and I loved using those books, because they were a breath of fresh air after all your French basics. [source]

The Pie and Pastry Bible

Rose Levy Beranbaum

4.4

The Pie and Pastry Bible is your magic wand for baking the pies, tarts, and pastries of your dreams—the definitive work by the country's top baker.

-More than 300 recipes, 200 drawings of techniques and equipment, and 70 color pictures of finished pies, tarts, and pastries

-Easy-to-follow recipes for fruit pies, chiffon pies, custard pies, ice-cream pies, meringue pies, chocolate pies, tarts and ta

Recommended by Yotam Ottolenghi.