Yotam ottolenghi

Most men say they can cook pasta, but I think you should find a little bit of an unusual angle on your pasta and make that your signature dish.

Beetroot is a great salad ingredient, especially when still warm; the colour ain't bad, either.

New-season lamb shoulder, cooked pink, is the perfect platform for a mixture of fresh and cooked herbs.

The most important thing for me is to walk the little alleys of the city, to find the little alcove where someone is cooking something, and just watch them do it. That's my idea of fun.

When I was a kid, there was always food to be had on the street in Jerusalem, but anything above a falafel stand was mediocre or worse.

Good asparagus needs minimal treatment and is best eaten with few other ingredients.

I get great pleasure from stuffed foods, from an apple strudel to a vegetable samosa, from a whole roasted bird with a sweet and savoury stuffing to a vine leaf filled with rice and spices.

I like to talk about food, ingredients, and how to adapt recipes. It's a dialogue.

Chickpeas are one of my favourite things to serve with chorizo or lamb meatballs; they also work brilliantly as the quiet partner in a vibrant alphonso mango salad.

The difference between a bland tomato and great one is immense, much like the difference between a standard, sliced white bread and a crusty, aromatic sourdough.