Yotam Ottolenghi Brings ‘Comfort’ to Central Coast with Interactive Evening
Internationally renowned chef, restaurateur, and food writer Yotam Ottolenghi wants you to arrive a little hungry to his San Luis Obispo stop of his cookbook interview tour on October 12.
“Come somewhere in the middle,” Yotam said. “If you come totally full, you may not enjoy some of the tantalizing aspects of seeing the food and talking about the food. If you come hungry, you’ll just suffer,” he laughed. “So, you need to be somewhere in the middle and allow yourself what food has to offer.”
The event at Cal Poly’s Miossi Hall will mark an evening around comfort and what the word means and inspires when it comes to food, which is also the title of his eighth cookbook, set for release in October.
Edible San Luis Obispo Managing Editor Aja Goare will have a conversation with Ottolenghi focused on how he cooks the recipes found in Comfort, as well as what gives him comfort in cooking, creating recipes and the creative process. Following the conversation, the audience will have the opportunity to help guide Ottolenghi in creating a recipe, prepared right on the stage.
“We’ll have the ingredients and I’m going to challenge the audience to guide me through the process of cooking something. There’s a surprise element there as well,” he said. The audience will also be invited to participate in a question-and-answer session to close out the evening.
“We were really excited to have this opportunity to bring Yotam for many reasons – brilliant cookbook author, restaurateur, thought leader in terms of food and creativity – and so when this opportunity came about to bring him to San Luis Obispo, it seemed like a no brainer, especially with how our food scene is thriving and growing,” said Molly Clark, Director of Cal Poly Arts. “To have Yotam, a chef of his stature, he’s one of the most well-respected chefs in the world at this point. To be able to bring that to our local community is thrilling.” Tickets can be found on the Cal Poly Arts website.
Don’t be fooled by the title of the cookbook. Comfort is much more than preconceived notions. “The book proceeded the title. One of the worries for me was that people would look at the title and say, ‘I know what comfort food is, it means mashed potatoes and pizza,’ which on some level, those things are comforting,” said Ottolenghi. “It doesn’t tell the story we wanted to tell and the story we wanted to tell was our own relationship with food, what food does to us.”
Ottolenghi wrote the book with three chef friends who all share their perspective of comforting food from diverse backgrounds.
“At this point in human history, it’s becoming increasingly apparent to me that what we do when we cook is seek solace often from a very, very messy world,” he said. “If you would have asked me 10 years ago, I would have said people cook for all sorts of reasons – you want to challenge yourself, you want to conquer a new cuisine, you want to conquer a new technique, you want to find all those wonderful things to do in order to expand, which I think people still do with cooking, but increasingly, there is a sense of uncertainty. I see it more and more with how people approach food and the kitchen in how they cook and, often, it is to find a sense of stability, some grounding. And that is what comfort food is for me, it offers a connection.”
A wide range of recipes can be found in the book. The focus in each, Ottolenghi said, is about cooking. The recipes inside are inviting and approachable. Also of note is that vegetables can be the star of the show, instead of just a side dish or afterthought. Overall, readers will notice a stirring spirit that drives the recipes on each page.
“What we really want to focus on is the emotional connection that food gives you. It’s not one thing, it’s many things,” said Ottolenghi. “This recipe book is about cooking at home for all different reasons. It’s an opportunity for us to offer our emotional lexicon or how we grew up and how these foods do it for us. That’s what comfort means to me. It’s not about a dish, it’s about the emotional evoked through food and the sharing of food.”
You can learn more about the book and Ottolenghi on his website.
