Ottolenghi Comfort

by Yotam Ottolenghi, Helen Goh

This is comfort food, Ottolenghi-style.In his much-anticipated new book, Yotam Ottolenghi brings his inspiring, flavour-forward approach to comfort cooking, delivering new classics that taste of home.A bowl of pasta becomes Caramelised Onion Orecchiette with Hazelnuts & Crispy Sage, a warming soup is Cheesy Bread Soup with Savoy Cabbage & Cavolo Nero, and a plate of mash is transformed into Garlicky Aligot Potato with Leeks & Thyme.Weaving memories of childhood and travel with over 100 irresistible recipes, Ottolenghi COMFORT is a celebration of food and home – of the connections we make as we cook, and pass on from generation to generation.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Culinary, Food and Drink

532 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2024

About the author

Yotam Ottolenghi's path to the world of cooking and baking has been anything but straightforward. Having completed a Masters degree in philosophy and literature whilst working on the news desk of an Israeli daily, he made a radical shift on coming to London in 1997. He started as an assistant pastry chef at the Capital and then worked at Kensington Place and Launceston Place, where he ran the pastry section. Yotam subsequently worked for Maison Blanc and then Baker and Spice, before starting his own eponymous group of restaurants/food shops, with branches in Notting Hill, Islington and Kensington.

Reviews

[Carol, She's so Novel ꧁꧂ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm on my final allowed renewal of this library copy & shamefully tonight is the first time I have made a recipe from it. This is partly because a casual flick through the pages showed some expensive/hard to obtain ingredients like Ottolenghe's beloved Rose Harissa & partly because it has been a busy few weeks.

But tonight I made the Polenta Pancakes with Spiced Corn Salad. (served with a side of bacon). A lot more stages than I normally like but as well as a big mess I also made a beautiful meal. The pancakes were both creamy & fluffy, the salted peanuts gave the corn salad an unexpected crunch. The recipe made enough that we will be having leftovers tomorrow.

Butter Beans with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

& this time I remembered to take a photo - amazing, as tonight is Rugby Night & my husband - A Good Kiwi Bloke- likes very simple food & no hassle on a Friday night.

This meal certainly wasn't no hassle! There wasn't a lot of ingredients but there were a lot of stages. & I certainly won't be drying cherry tomato skins again! With the final meal they ended up soaking into the meal anyway. But last night I crumbled the leftover tomato skins onto my toast & they were really good! But, life's too short & all that!

The finished meal;

The toasted fennel seeds were an inspired touch! I will be making this again.

Cucur Udong (Prawn Spoon Fritters)

Well this was pretty much a disaster!

I halved the recipe & maybe I got the proportions wrong, maybe the proving time is shorter for a smaller quantity, because the fritter batter was like rubber! The whole prawns bounced when I tried to press them into the batter!& the cooking times were wrong - I had to cook for a lot longer than the recipe stated. For the dipping sauce, my blender couldn't cope with the ingredients, even though I ignored the instructions to put a clove of garlic in the blender whole (whyyyyy?) so that was a murky mess. My husband had a sandwich for dinner.

Final Conclusions

This book was published in 2024 & Ottolenghe & his team couldn't know that, worldwide, food prices were going to soar. A 450 gram block of butter now costs NZ$10, for example. This is now a cook book for the well heeled & for those who like making dishes with a lot of stages & tracking down hard to find ingredients. (like black garlic) I am not that sort of cook. There are some cheaper recipes (I opened the book at random & found Chicken Meatballs, Potatoes & Lemon. All affordable ingredients, although I haven't seen chicken mince at our supermarket in a while. & I spotted one recipe using nigella seeds & I do have some. I may get the book out of the library again for that. This is why I prefer using cookbooks from my own country or grabbing a recipe from the internet.

The book is beautifully presented & the recipes are colourful. The writing in the introduction, has Ottolenghe's love of food shining through. But for me there wasn't enough usable recipes to justify ever buying this title.

Yes, I know I said 'final conclusions' but I got the book out again & made a couple more recipes.

The above mentioned Chicken Meatballs, Potatoes & Lemon.

At a casual glance it didn't look like it was going to be a lot of work. I really have to stop doing casual glances at Ottolenghe recipes. There was a lot of stages to this one - & I had to add an extra one to mince the chicken myself. The end result was delicious, but I made my usual mess & I'm not sure if I would bother making again. I might carry on adding coriander to my yoghurt sauces though.

Potato, Fennel & Smoked Salmon Bake

A variation on Scalloped Potatoes & finally a straightforward recipe! As you can see in the picture;

I could have left in the oven to brown up a bit more. The other mistake I made was halving the Lemon Butter Sauce. I halved the rest of the recipe, but IMO you still need the full sauce to get a decent coverage on the dish.

Even though the fennel lost all flavour when cooked (I don't usually cook fennel, I put it in a salad to enjoy the wonderful aniseed flavour) we both really enjoyed this one - & the kitchen didn't look like a bomb site!

https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...

[NILTON TEIXEIRA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book!
Terrific recipes and I want to try every single dish.
Some ingredients may be hard to find, but I don’t think I will have a problem with that in Toronto.

PS. I tried the recipe for the dish shown in the cover of the book. The recipe is called “Helen’s Bolognese” (page 207).
It was absolutely delicious!
I did not have pappardelle so I used tagliatelle.
And as I did not have rice wine I used Armagnac.
No tomatoes are used in this recipe and I cannot suggest using any kind of cheese.
The flavor is so good!
I did spice it up, perhaps a bit too much, because I added chili oil and red pepper flakes (not part of the ingredients), but this one is definitely a winner.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t know that comfort can be found in tracking down a dozen niche ingredients or taking a day to cook. This book is gorgeous but can’t comfort cooking be flavourful and easy? If you have time and energy you’ll probably love it.

[Miss✧Pickypants ᓚᘏᗢ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fans of Yotam Ottolenghi cookbooks will not be disappointed with this latest offering. Focused on what the four authors consider to be comfort foods, you will find well-written recipes accompanied with pretty, glossy photos of the dishes.

These comfort foods aren't what you might expect in the traditional sense and tend to incorporate global flavours. Recipes tend to be a bit chef-y and more complex since all elements are made from scratch, or what they term "real cooking" in their introduction. Cooks seeking to add new twists to their comfort food repertoire will likely appreciate what this cookbook has to offer.

[Rosemary Standeven · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started reading this book, I was marking down nearly every recipe to try – they all looked great. So far I have used seven of the recipes, but will definitely not stop there. My favourites have been ‘Shawarma meatloaf with caramelised onions’ and ‘Red Lentil Dal with Potato and Fennel’, which were excellent, and will be repeated again and again. They are also recipes that I would personally classify as comfort food. Also worth mention are ‘Cheesy Bread Soup with Savoy Cabbage’ and ‘Leek, Tomato and Turmeric Frittata’.
Ottolenghi says that ‘comfort food’ is highly personal – often a reminder of a particular time or place or event. It often (though not always) contains big portions of fat and carbohydrate.
My husband (who is chief cook and bottle-washer, but due to a damaged oesophagus can’t eat most solids, so none of these recipes) believes that ‘comfort food’ should also be ‘comfortable’ for the cook – ie. not messy and not too many dishes to do afterwards. Sadly, this book does not always take those considerations into account – though other reviews state that as far as Ottolenghi cookbooks go, these recipes are generally easy and faff-free.
A great cookbook, with many very interesting recipes. Definitely recommended.

[Cathy Van · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made a NYT adapted recipe from this book, the roasted carrots with dukkah. It was delicious. So I put the book on hold and waited for it. What a disappointment!
If I could source the unusual ingredients in every recipe of this book, and take the many hours needed to prepare the recipes, I’m sure they would all be delicious, too.
But…I’m a home cook. And reading this cookbook was like reading a fantasy novel—I enter another world.
Maybe in London or New York, one could find all these foods, spices, and even tools! But this is not an accessible book for me.

[Kate]

june 2025 cookbook book club pick

"kate's enemy."

Verdict: All were underwhelmed, and all of us had multiple points in our recipe where we thought, "Surely that can't be right," followed the directions instead of our instincts, and then wished we'd listened to our instincts. I hate to be vindicated (I'm the one in our book club always hating on Ottolenghi) but...I was vindicated. We had a good meal, but we were all annoyed by the process of cooking and the results were merely fine.

What We Cooked:
-Verena’s Potato Salad
-Mushroom and kimchi mapo tofu
-Red lentil dal with potato and fennel
-Coconut rice with peanut sauce and cucumber relish
-Malty Figgy Pudding

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful book. Recipes seem a bit over complicated.

[Mor_datter_bogdragerne · Rating 4 out of 5]

En utrolig lækker kvalitets kogebog, med virkelig indbydende billeder og fantastiske opskrifter. Mundvandet løber allerede, når man bladrer igennem bogen og vi har allerede nogle klare favoritter. En meget simpel bog, hvor vi sammen i familien kan skabe mindeværdige måltider.

Vi har nydt disse lækre retter og er ikke færdige med at udforske endnu.
🍲Kyllingekødboller, kartofler og citron
🥯Fnuglette boller
🍫Chokolademousse med appelsinkaramel

4,5/6 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love cooking. Anything made from scratch at home is a joy for me.

Also, I have a big family so I am all about budget beaters, and making my rand stretch further.

Fresh vegetables and fruit and herbs are a staple, so pg 84, COMFORT VEG, made me so happy. I also love pot-fulls of soup because the leftovers are so easy to repurpose. EGGS, CREPES, PANCACAKES are so versatile. You can go to town with with fillings. Packed with veggies, stewed fruit (not the eggs!), sprinkled with herbs, shakshukas, actually anything you can think of.

My favourite chapter was PASTA, POLENTA, POTATOES because I mean, if you have any of these three as a base, the sky is the limit.

With 100 recipes to choose from, get your cooking going!

Healthy eating is for every body and it's possible everyday. Fresh vegetables and fruit are inexpensive, and all recipes featured consist of ingredients that are mostly pantry staples.

What a fun recipe book. The colours are so so joyfully comforting and the embossing gives this book an elegant high-end finish.

It looks SO good on my coffeetable.

Thank you Penguin Random House SA for this review copy.

[Melanie]

Very good:
-baked polenta with courgette and green harissa - great with chimichurri instead of harissa too
-Tortang Talong

Good:
-Egg sambal shakshuka
-puttanesca style salmon traybake
-meatballs with nuoc Cham, cucumber and mint
-butter beans with roasted cherry tomatoes
-Sambal spiced chicken. - try marinating chicken without the skin next time
-Carrot and Vadouvan quick-bread. Will be amazing with a soup
-white chocolate and macadamia cookies - try with a bit less butter

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sinds ik op mezelf woon heb ik besloten koken serieuzer te nemen, en dat betekent ook dat mensen die dit weten je kookboeken gaan geven. Daar geniet ik van.

De cover van Ottolenghi Comfort is geweldig kleurrijk en alleen daarom al een genot om in de keuken te hebben. Echter het koken eruit? Iets minder.

Veel recepten heb ik nog niet eens uitgeprobeerd. Niet omdat ik niet denk dat ze niet lekker zijn (spoiler: degene die ik heb uitgeprobeerd waren zalig!), maar omdat het je simpelweg als nieuwe chef niet makkelijk wordt gemaakt. Voor veel recepten heb je niet zeer toegankelijke ingrediënten nodig, en nog best vaak veel verschillende ingrediënten ook. Daarnaast zijn ook niet altijd de stappen - of beter gezegd hóé ik sommige dingen moet doen - voor mij even duidelijk. Tel daarbij op dat gevoelsmatig veel recepten ook wel wat tijd in beslag nemen, wat als beginnende chef nog drie keer zo erg is, en het resulteert in dat ik het boek helaas toch niet zo vaak oppak als ik zou willen.

Desalniettemin, het scala aan verschillende recepten is geweldig, net zoals het uiteindelijke eten als het je eenmaal allemaal is gelukt. Of het dus echt comfort brengt in het proces betwijfel ik, het doet het wel zeker als je het in je mond stopt.

[Nicole Hyman Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes I did read a cookbook cover to cover like a novel. Highly recommend.

[Natalie Costello · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to make every.single.recipe. Leek, tomato, and tumeric frittata? Thousand hole pancakes? Fried chicken sandos w/ harissa mayo? LFG 👏🏼

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magnificent recipes! A few more vegan options would be welcome.

[Blaire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great. Guys I swear I’ll finish my reading challenge this year.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely a foodie cookbook. The recipes reminded me of Top Chef where the contestants readily have access to many ingredients and then use too many in their dishes. I live in a market where numerous of these ingredients are not available to me. I’d probably eat most of these recipes if they were made for me, but I wouldn’t make any - except for maybe the dinner rolls. None of these - besides the rolls - seemed comforting and especially not easy!

[Jennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love reading cookbooks, and love the challenge of taking non-vegetarian recipes and finding ways to make them vegetarian using alternative ingredients. Ottolenghi's recipes are all differently and sufficiently spiced that making those changes is fun; but still, this is a very meat-heavy book. I only copied 8 recipes I wanted to make.

[Naraya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was ist eigentlich Comfort Food? Diese Frage beantwortet Koch und Autor Yotam Ottolenghi in seinem neusten Kochbuch „Comfort“. In der Einleitung geht es zunächst darum, welche Kriterien solche Gerichte erfüllen müssen: sie sollen nahrhaft, bequem zubereitbar, nostalgisch und genussvoll sein – auch wenn natürlich jede*r von uns ganz eigene Vorstellungen von „Wohlfühlessen“ hat. Gemeinsam mit seinen Mitarbeiterinnen Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller und Tara Wigley hat Ottolenghi hier nun wunderbare Rezepte zusammengetragen – aus den unterschiedlichsten Kategorien und Länderküchen, die sich alle aus der Herkunft und den Lebensläufen des Teams ergeben.

Jedes Rezept ist dabei sehr übersichtlich aufgebaut: In der linken Spalte sind die Zutaten und ggf. benötigten Utensilien zu finden; in der rechten folgen zunächst einleitende erklärende, manchmal aber auch persönliche Worte und dann die Zubereitungsanleitung in gut gegliederten Absätzen. Ergänzt wird alles durch den tollen Fotos von Jonathan Lovekin, die bei manchen Rezepten sogar eine Doppelseite mit Schritt-für-Schritt-Bildern einnehmen. Schön fand ich auch, dass zwischendurch Fotos des Teams bei der Arbeit oder beim gemeinsamen Essen zu sehen sind.

Im Buch sind Rezepte aus allen Rubriken vorhanden, die für mich unter das perfekte Comfort Food fallen, so zum Beispiel Suppen, Eintöpfe, Nudelgerichte, Frittiertes und Gebratenes, Nachtisch oder Gebäck. Es gibt süße und herzhafte Gerichte, solche aus dem europäischen oder dem asiatischen Raum, Fusionküche, mit Fleisch oder ohne – hier wird sicherlich jede*r etwas für sich finden können. Was als nächstes ausprobiert werden soll, kann mit einem von zwei bunten Lesebändchen markiert werden, was ich ich sehr praktisch finde. Auf den letzten Seiten ist schließlich noch ein alphabetisches Register nach Rezepten und Grundzutaten zu finden.

Comfort Food schmeckt am besten in Gemeinschaft, es spendet uns Trost und gibt Halt, weil wir so einen Teil unserer Kultur oder unserer Kindheit immer mit uns nehmen können – egal wo wir leben. All das bringt „Comfort“ wunderbar zum Ausdruck.

[Joke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comfort is het werk van vier foodies, Yotam, Helen, Verona en Tara. Het is een eerbetoon aan familie, aan thuis, kortom aan mensen. Dit viertal heeft op vele plaatsen in de wereld gewoond, inspiratie opgedaan en recepten meegebracht die zij weer met anderen willen delen.



In het boek staan haarscherpe treffende foto’s van gebruiksvoorwerpen in de keuken, klaargemaakte gerechten en huiselijke sfeerplaatjes. Bij het zien van deze afbeeldingen wil je meteen aanvallen op de klaargemaakte gerechten, zo lekker ziet het er allemaal uit. De fotografie is van Jonathan Lovekin.

In de inleiding wordt besproken wat comfortfood, ook wel troosteten, betekent in het leven van eenieder. Behalve dat het persoonlijk is, en er betekenis aan gegeven wordt, is het ook nog eens cultuurgebonden. “De gave van een gerecht om tegelijk nieuw en nostalgisch te zijn, is de kern van onze interpretatie van comfortfood.”



Het boek is opgedeeld in tien delen die vooraf worden gegaan door fleurige gekleurde bladzijden. Hierop staat telkens de categorie vermeld. Van voor-, bij-, hoofd-, tot nagerecht, je vindt het allemaal in Comfort. Het boek is een aanwinst voor mensen die houden van uitgebreid koken en is daarnaast een lust voor het oog.

Bij Eieren, flensjes en pannenkoeken heb ik de flensjes met kaas en kerrie gemaakt voor de lunch.
Troostrijke groenten bevat herkenbare, maar soms ook bewerkelijke groenten. In boter gesmoorde koolrabi met olijvenchimichurri is een heerlijk gerecht, dat hier vaker gemaakt gaat worden. De olijvenchimichuri kun je van tevoren maken, wat scheelt in de tijd die je in de keuken doorbrengt.
Uit Gebraden kip en traybakes heb ik Kip met Stephs specerijen gemaakt en dat staat hier nu regelmatig op het menu.Het deel over Pasta, polenta, aardappels zorgt voor nieuwsgierigheid bij recepten met namen als Aligot met knoflook, comté, prei en tijm en Rigatoni al ragù bianco.
Pasteien, hartige baksels, brood is het gedeelte wat grote aantrekkingskracht heeft, maar waar met mate iets uit bereid zal worden, doordat er veel boter, roomkaas en olijfolie in de overheerlijke gerechten zit.
Bij Zoetigheden viel mij de Nederlandse appeltaart meteen op, net even anders dan ik gewend was te maken. De smaak is overheerlijk met voor mij ongewone bestanddelen als nootmuskaat, donkere stroop, mahleb en panko als toevoegingen aan het appelmengsel.

De recepten zijn duidelijk uitgeschreven en makkelijk te bereiden. De ingrediëntenlijst van de gerechten staat herkenbaar in de kantlijn en de beschrijving van het recept is goed en uitgebreid, met korte anekdotes over het recept. Wat jammer is, is dat er nergens (voor)bereidingstijden zijn vermeld. Wel wordt elk recept vooraf gegaan door een kort stukje tekst over bijvoorbeeld herkomst, waar het mee gevarieerd kan worden, of het van te voren bereid kan worden en hoelang het dan houdbaar is in de koelkast. Ottolenghi weet op aantrekkelijke wijze, d.m.v. het weergeven van de verschillende stadia in de bereiding, het gerecht te presenteren. Aan het eind van het boek is een register opgenomen waar terloops nog wat opmerkingen over te gebruiken ingrediënten worden gegeven. Iets wat je normaliter aan het begin van een kookboek zou verwachten.

Een tip van mij is om ruim van te voren te kijken wat je wilt maken, want in kleinere winkels zijn sommige ingrediënten niet verkrijgbaar. En ja, internet kan daar wellicht iets in betekenen.

Comfort is een boek vol heerlijke, herkenbare gerechten, maar dan net een tikkeltje anders klaargemaakt.

[Havers · Rating 5 out of 5]

In „Comfort“, Yotam Ottolenghis neuem Kochbuch, dreht sich diesmal alles um Wohlfühl-Rezepte, die mit den Aromen, für die dieser Ausnahmekoch steht, einmal mehr für Geschmacksexplosionen sorgen.

Aber was ist ein Wohlfühl-Essen? Auf diese Frage gibt keine allgemeingültige Antwort, denn jede/r, abhängig vom kulturellen Hintergrund und persönlichen Erfahrungen, wird sie anders beantworten. Ganz gleich ob Pasta, Frittiertes oder Süßes, es sind in erster Linie individuelle Erinnerungen, die wir mit den gefüllten Tellern verbinden. Nicht nur an Orte, sondern vor allem an Menschen, die diese Gerichte zubereitet oder mit denen wir sie genossen haben.

Seine langjährigen Mitarbeiterinnen schwelgen mit ihm in Erinnerungen aus der Kindheit oder von Reisen und steuern gleichfalls ihre eigenen Wohlfühl-Rezepte bei, die aber, wie es nicht anders zu erwarten war, durch ungewöhnliche Zutaten, oft aus dem Gewürzregal oder Vorratsschrank, einen besonderen Kick erhalten.

Wie gewohnt gibt es viele Rezepte, bei denen Gemüse die Hauptrolle spielt. Ich habe bisher die in Butter geschmorten Kohlrabi mit Oliven-Chimichurri sowie den im Backofen gerösteten Spitzkohl mit Miso-Butter nachgekocht. Und was soll ich sagen? Eine absolute Geschmacksexplosion, die diese Alltagsgemüse auf eine ganz neue Stufe hebt und die Vorfreude auf die anderen Gerichte schürt, die ich mir markiert habe.

Die Rezepte sind durchgehend einfach nachzukochen. Sie benötigen manchmal etwas mehr Zeit, aber das lässt sich verschmerzen, wenn das Ergebnis so lecker wie hier ist. Und auch die Beschaffung der Zutaten sollte kein Problem sein, sind diese doch üblicherweise in gut sortierten Supermärkten oder türkischen Lebensmittelgeschäften erhältlich.

Schaut es euch an, blättert es durch, lasst euch inspirieren und merkt, wie euch der Mund wässrig wird. Für mich ist „Comfort“ ohne Zweifel das Kochbuch des Jahres, und ich empfehle es nachdrücklich zur Anschaffung.

[Jiri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Our cookbook club had this last month, I was able to sample about 30 recipes.
I thougt many of the recipes were pretty "simple" tasting. In the past we did Ottolenghi's Flavor book which was much more interesting and innovative to me.

My recipes from the book were Crepes, Hazelnut and chocolate spread and the Vietnamese style pork meatballs with Nuoc cham dipping sauce.

The crepe recipe is pretty straight forward and standard however the method to mix by hand is wrong. The book says to combine the eggs, butter and flour when mixing by hand then gradually add the milk , this will give you a lumpy battereven if you rest it. In years of making this type of batter, you whisk the eggs, add the milk then the flour to get a smooth batter. The crepes made with the mixed batter were fine but the last part of the batter was lumpy and had to be discarded.
The hazelnut and chocolate spread is basically a version of nutella spread. Adding the sesame seed made the recipe taste a bit like Halvah and I would not make it with sesame seed again but that is my personal preference.

The vietnamese style meatballs were a positive surprise, holding together without eggs or breadcrumb in the mix, only rice and flavoring. The flavor was great with the fresh mint, cilantro and fish sauce. I will do these again. The Nuoc cham dipping sauce was good as well.

Many of the other recipes were basically OK but not special. Some people mentioned having trouble finding some of the ingredients.

The stroganoff meatballs were good while pasta with pesto, meatloaf, several chicken dishes, chocolate mousse and others were just OK. The eggplant soup was too hot with peppers for my taste, salmon not great and a cake that was dry.

The feeling in the group was that Ottolenghi may have put his name to some work that was not his. I have no interest in returning to this book.

[DJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A feast for the senses—bright, beautiful, and full of soul-warming dishes. The “Pasta, Polenta, and Potatoes” chapter alone is worth the read, with gems like garlicky aligot potatoes, and one-pot porcini orzo.

Standouts include the creamy eggplant Caesar dip, lemon thyme mascarpone crepes, and Dutch apple cake. The salty carrot and vadouvan quick bread looks like it is a soft, scone-like? delight, while the sesame and hazelnut praline spread looks like pure indulgence. Recipes like the black garlic, and baharat pie or cheesy curry crepes strike a perfect balance of comfort and creativity.

Ottolenghi’s thoughtful ingredient substitutions, vibrant photos, and heartfelt stories make this book not just a guide but an experience. It’s comfort food elevated—authentic, colorful, and absolutely delicious.

**I also have made several notes to sub for ingredients (such as lentils, tofu, etc.) to make it vegetarian/vegan friendly :)

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first time I have reviewed a cookbook even though I have a number that I hold dear, I am inclined to believe this will one will join that shelf. I devoured this book in its entirety on a wintry afternoon following Christmas and have bookmarked at least a dozen recipes. The title, Comfort, is well chosen as it is how one feels reading this book and undoubtedly while eating this food. The ingredients, the photography, and the short blurbs that provide welcome insight into a given recipe, combine to create not only a reading experience but generates enthusiasm around replicating a dish.

[Ole · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.2*

Een warm en uitnodigend kookboek waarin eten draait om troost, herinnering en royaal genieten. Comfort laat zien dat Ottolenghi ook zonder culinaire vuurwerkshows weet te raken, met gerechten die vertrouwd aanvoelen maar toch zijn Oriënte kenmerkende twist behouden.

Tijdens het bladeren krijg je direct zin om de keuken in te duiken: smaken zijn diep, combinaties doordacht en de recepten voelen haalbaar zonder saai te worden. Het is geen boek voor snelle doordeweekse happen (al die ingelegde ingrediënten maakt dat lastig), maar wel voor avonden waarop je uitgebreid wilt koken en nog uitgebreider wilt tafelen. Comfortfood in de breedste, en beste, zin van het woord.

[Paul Cassedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful coffee table book with many very elegant, but also non-fussy recipes. Follows the author's well known minimalist style. As my grandmother used to say: "if you can thumb through a cookbook and find three or four recipes you are certain you will actually use, it is a worthy purchase." I found at least a half dozen on a fast reading, and quite a few more I'd like to consider in more depth. Although a large format book, the many large and beautiful photographs make this volume an easy and fast read.

[Tilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very thorough book and visually pleasing - I’m often disappointed by food photography but these photos are lovely. I’m sure the recipes, when made, are delicious (there’s a wide variety) but other than a couple of sauces, the ingredients lists for pretty much every recipe are too long - and expensive, I’d say. It’s probably deceptive and a long list of teaspoons, etc but it put me off wanting to make anything.

[AskNezka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous and nostalgic book design but a lot of the recipes use more difficult to get ingredients, and feature the more typical bitter flavor profile Ottolenghi is well known for. One extra star because there's a recipe for Kaiserschmarrn but I promise there are easier recipes out there that would make it possible for you to have that dish every day if you wanted.

[Elma from the Dutch literary and potato peel pie society · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of this beautifully made cookbook is really appropriate as all recipes sound and look appetizing and comfy. I generally appreciate some more personal story behind a recipe which is limited in this cookbook. But the real ‘problem’ that arises is: what table full of lovely food to choose and make? Much more inspiring than Simple.

[Bekah Aponte]

I love the idea of this cookbook and how different regions of the world inspired the recipes. Eggs and meat abound, so I am not the target audience, but it got me thinking a lot about the idea of food as comfort and not purely fuel, which I think is an important counterpoint to ideas about food pushed by diet culture.