Yotam Ottolenghi quotes:

For me, the end of childhood came when the number of candles on my birthday cake no longer reflected my age, around 19 or 20. From then on, each candle came to represent an entire decade.

Some heat, some spice and plenty of citrus are the building blocks of many North African fish dishes.

I am sure that in the story of Adam and Eve, the forbidden fruit was a fig and not an apple, pear or anything else.

My maternal grandmother made fantastic ox tongue with velvety roasted potatoes. She cooked sweet red cabbage and lovely cauliflower with butter and bread crumbs.

I used to love fine dining, but I lost my appetite for it to a degree because sometimes it is too much about the effort and too little about the result.

Pizza was made for television in so many ways: it is easy to heat up, easy to divide and easy to eat in a group. It is easy to enjoy, easy to digest and easy-going. It is so Italian!

I keep returning to the combination of artichoke, broad beans and lemon. The freshness of young beans and the lemon juice 'lifts' the artichoke and balances its hearty nature.

Rice and vermicelli is a common combination in Arab and Turkish cooking - it has a lighter texture than rice on its own.

The natural sweetness of leeks, with their soft, oniony aroma, makes them the perfect winter comfort food.

Black glutinous rice works in both savoury and sweet dishes. It's a popular pudding rice in south-east Asia, where you'll often come across it cooked with water, coconut milk and a pandan leaf.

Some breakfast cereals only come into their own as children's party treats: what are cornflakes and Coco Pops for, if not to clump together with melted chocolate and spoon into a cupcake holder?

Most fish require a short cooking time, but cephalopods are the exception to this fishy rule. As with some cuts of larger land beasts, the longer they're cooked, the more tender they get.

Call me tacky, but I love the union of sweet and sour, even in some now-unloved Oriental dishes incorporating pineapple and ketchup.

After all these years of cooking and writing recipes, I am still amazed every time I notice how even the minutest of variation in technique can make a spectacular difference.

Polenta is to northern Italy what bread is to Tuscany, what pasta is to Emilia-Romagna and what rice is to the Veneto: easy to make, hungry to absorb other flavours, and hugely versatile.

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.

Infants have around 30,000 tastebuds, only about a third of which survive into adulthood, so a child's sensitivity towards extremes of sweet, sour and bitter flavours is heightened.

Stuffed vine leaves tend to burn and/or stick when you cook them. To avoid this, use a heavy based pan lined with a few layers of second-rate leaves.

Orange blossom water would make a magical addition to your store cupboard.

If you can't taste an ingredient, you have to ask yourself why it is there.

Brunch, for me, is an extended breakfast that should be enjoyed whenever you have time properly to engage in cooking and eating.

These days, meals are more open to personal preferences. People like to serve themselves.

Preparing and cooking squid is easier than most fish. The only thing to remember is not to cook it for too long.

Amaranth, the world's most nutritious grain, is available from health food stores.

Like brown rice, black rice is unmilled, and it is the dark outer husk that makes it so nutty and chewy. It's also why it takes longer to cook than many other rices.

I love the way soft white cheese such as ricotta or the creamier mascarpone reflect the milieu in which an animal has been raised.

Tahini is fantastically versatile, its deep, nutty flavour a harmonious match with roasted vegetables, grilled oily fish or barbecued meat.

When it comes to cooking pasta, the first essential is to make sure you have a big enough pot: it needs room to roll in the water while cooking.

Miso makes a soup loaded with flavour that saves you the hassle of making stock.

Too many books are full of recipes that aren't doable at home. They are purely aspirational. They are quite frightening, even for me.

Most of my recipes start life in the domestic kitchen, and even those that start out in the restaurant kitchen have to go through the domestic kitchen.

Sorrel adds a unique grassy sharpness to salads and dressings, but it can be hard to come by.

Buckwheat, like Marmite and durian, is a seriously divisive foodstuff, so it needs a seriously capable defence team if it's ever going to make it on to most people's dinner tables.

If the first bite is with the eye and the second with the nose, some people will never take that third, actual bite if the food in question smells too fishy, fermented or cheesy.

Dried porcini add a substantial, deep flavour to otherwise more neutral vegetables. I use them in risottos, mashed roots and winter soups.

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.

I love dishes that feature the various shades of a single colour, making you stop to check what's in there.

Poaching white fish in moderately hot oil guarantees soft-textured flesh and allows you to prepare a sauce calmly, without the usual panic about overcooking the fish.

I always preferred my father's pasta the next day, when he'd put it in a hot oven with heaps of extra cheese. It would emerge slightly burned and very crisp on top.

My father always cooks more polenta than he needs for a meal. The excess he spreads on an oiled surface and chills. Next day, he cuts out chunks, fries them in olive oil and serves with salad.

The combination of lentils with rice or bulgur is the absolute height of Levantine comfort food. I could eat it every day.

Going out for a meal, especially for young urbanites, is less about socialising over enjoyable food than about enjoying food as a way to socialise.

A food processor, or even one of those small bowls that fit on a stick blender, is a real treasure. No, that's not an overstatement.

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

Dad likes my food, but he probably thinks it's too busy. He is a wonderful cook but only uses three ingredients. My mum rips out my articles and makes my recipes.

One of the troubles with food is that people take themselves too seriously. This is why I'm very happy for people to change my recipes, alter them, replace one ingredient for another.

I used to have a very unmediated experience of food but, because of the recipe testing, I've lost that now. I can't switch it off even when I'm on holiday.

People don't know how good cauliflower is, because they always have this image of cauliflower cheese - awful, sticky, creamy and rich.

There used to be a time - it isn't so much the case now - that vegetarianism was some kind of religion, and either you belong or you don't belong.

Stereotypical vegetarian food looks gray and brown.

Conflict is very much a state of mind. If you're not in that state of mind, it doesn't bother you.

In vast parts of the world, people don't eat meat.

I do support people eating more vegetables. It's a good thing to do.

Healthy is in the eye of the beholder.

There is a unique freshness when eating buckwheat noodles cold with plenty of herbs and citrus acidity. I can't think of any better use of chopsticks on a hot and sweaty evening.

Marinating chicken in miso adds lots of character to the meat with little work.

Almost every culture has its own variation on chicken soup, and rightly so - it's one of the most gratifying dishes on the face of the Earth.

The range of ingredients available to home cooks has expanded dramatically. People are incorporating herbs and spices like lemongrass, smoked Mexican chile, sumac, and za'atar mix.

Nearly all edible seaweeds - or 'sea vegetables,' as they ought technically to be called - belong to one of three broad groups: green, red and brown algae.

Pomegranate molasses is ubiquitous in Arabic cooking: it's sweet, sour and adds depth.

There is nothing like a good old recipe. If it has lasted, then it is good.

Eating ready-made meals is about being very passive, and actively cooking is something that nothing compares to.

For those, like me, who can't rely on being given a home smoker this Christmas, you can build your own approximation with just a roll of tin foil and a big wok or pan for which you have a lid.

Having grown up in the Middle East, eating beans for breakfast always seemed like a bizarre British eccentricity.

Take your average couscous salad, and it's almost always a sloppy mush, no matter how much attention has gone into getting flavours in there.

You can really taste the difference between a shop-bought and a good homemade mayo.

Leeks are normally given the job of flavouring other things, such as stocks and soups, but I find their creaminess and sweet, oniony flavour very satisfying.

Sweet potatoes are ideal for lazy days: just bake, then mash and mix with yogurt, butter or olive oil.

Way back when I was a junior pastry chef, I'd bake loads of muffins every morning, as many as 120 or so, while operating on autopilot.

Tagliatelle comes from the word tagliare, meaning 'to cut.' Tagliolini are simply thinly cut tagliatelle.

The Guardian's 'Word of Mouth' blog bridges the gap between blogging and serious food journalism.

Date syrup is a natural sweetener that has wonderful richness and treacly depth; I drizzle it over semolina porridge.

The combination of olive oil, garlic and lemon juice lifts the spirits in winter.

Mothers and grandmothers: these are the people that I admire most, not so much chefs.

Just-poached vegetables show off their natural attributes and taste fresh and light in a way you never get with roasting or frying.

The taste of any simple tomato-based salad is dependent on the quality of the tomatoes.

Yoghurt cuts sweetness and richness, tempers spice, and makes a dish sing.

If I must choose between healthy and tasty, I go for the second: having only one life to waste, it might as well be a pleasurable one.

Greek yogurt with some olive oil stirred in can transform many dishes.

I always pan-fry sprouts - it retains texture and enhances flavour.

Swiss chard is undervalued in Britain. It's a great substitute for spinach and keeps its shape well.

Sea spaghetti looks like dark fettuccine and has a similar texture - you can get it in health food stores or online.

I now understand how varied the world of cultivated rice is; that rice can play the lead or be a sidekick; that brown rice is as valuable as white; and that short-grain rice is the bee's knees.

Believe it or not, I'm as much a fan of a supper shortcut as the next person.

Chinese sausage, which is widely available from Asian grocers and online, is sweet, rich, and enticingly smoky. I add it to steamed rice with strips of omelette and a few baby veg stir-fried with soy.

I have yet to meet a carnivore who doesn't love a sausage roll.

Fresh egg pasta is traditionally served in the north of Italy with butter, cream and rich meat sauces, whereas dried pasta is more at home with the tomato- and olive oil-based ones of the south.

Good-quality nuts, toasted in a little butter and salt, make a magical addition to many salads.

A well-made salad must have a certain uniformity; it should make perfect sense for those ingredients to share a bowl.

The main distinction for fresh chillies is whether they are red or green, the difference being one of ripeness.

On some subconscious level, I've been prejudiced against turnips, parsnips, swedes and other roots. Do they taste of much? Are they really special? How wrong I was.

Plums are a good substitute for gooseberries.

There are many reasons I feel at home in the U.K., but if I were asked to pinpoint the moment I knew I'd arrived, it might well be when I realised the British shared my love of fritters.

You don't need a machine to make pasta: a rolling pin and a fast hand can create a smooth, if thick, sheet.

Buttermilk's palate-cleansing tartness is one reason it's used a lot in southern India, where meals often end with a small bowl of the stuff served with plain rice and pickles.

Chermoula is a potent North African spice paste that is ideal for smearing on your favourite vegetables for roasting.

My secret with kale is to add lots of sweet or sharp flavours to offset some of that grassy intensity.

Raw fish suppers admittedly require a little planning, not least in the acquisition of the main ingredient.

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.

Fusion food as a concept is kind of trying to quite consciously fuse things that are sometimes quite contradictory, sometimes quite far apart, to see if they'd work.

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

Speaking as someone who didn't go through the U.K. school system, with all the culinary baggage that entails, I am inordinately fond of custard in any shape or form.

The moment to tell my barber I was gay just never came up.

I rarely cook traditional risotto, but I love other grains cooked similarly - barley, spelt or split wheat. I find they have more character than rice and absorb other flavours more wholeheartedly.

Though not a true cereal but a fruit, buckwheat seeds resemble cereal grains and are often used in a similar way to rice, barley, bulgar or quinoa, usually as a side dish.

Barley and mushroom is a soothing combination. It's mainly a textural thing, with the barley both gently breaking and enhancing the mushroomy gloopiness.

Pot barley takes longer to cook than pearl, but an overnight soak in water will speed things along. It's a robust grain that, if overcooked, won't collapse but will become more tender.

Breakfast is always the best time for something juicy, sweet and fresh - it just feels like the right way to open the day. There's no right way, though, when it comes to choosing the fruit.

The differences between a tart, a pie and a quiche are a blur.

Halva works brilliantly in ice-cream.

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.

Brussels sprouts are really quite versatile.

On many occasions, an informal buffet and casual seating offer a little more intimacy than a loud gathering around a big table.

Even in the busiest kitchen, there's always a point at the end of the day when you go home.

One man's trash is another man's treasure, and the by-product from one food can be perfect for making another.

As with lemon juice, the more sorrel you use, the more it has to be balanced with something sweet, starchy or creamy - it's a yin-yang approach to cooking that I find rather calming.

How can something that's 95% water be so divisive? Alone among vegetables, the poor, innocent stick of celery elicits the most vicious attacks.

Celery leaves are an underused ingredient, most likely because supermarkets sell mostly leafless stalks.

For my money, celery hasn't got a mean bit of fibre in its body, and we all need to start being much nicer to it.

Pasta with melted cheese is the one thing I could eat over and over again.