#london deli

I first heard about Yotam Ottolenghi in a program detailing the Metropolitan Museum of Arts’s gala for their Versailles Exhibition. He was asked to organized food for the event. He invited five innovative pastry chefs to help him create deserts “fit for a king” (and anyone who bought a ticket).

I loved his passion for his art - pastries - and I was interested in learning more about him.

Ottolenghi was born in Israel. As an adult he moved to Amsterdam, then to London where he learned French Pastry techniques at the London Le Cordon Bleu. There he met his future business partner Sami Tamimi, a Palestinian born chef. They bonded over their shared love of Jerusalem’s and a joint “incomprehension of traditional English food”.

Together they started a deli - Tamimi was put in charge of the savories dishes and Ottolenghi was in charge of the pastries. The two now co-own six delis and restaurants across London. Both are acclaimed cookbook authors.

Ottolenghi describes his cooking philosophy:

“I want drama in the mouth.“

Ottolenghi met his romantic partner Karl Allen in 2000 and they got married in 2012. The two decided to have a children via surrogacy (sons born in 2013 and 2015).

He described coming out:

“… everything was smooth, relatively easy and painless for us. The only obstacle was coming out to our families, which we both did in our twenties. But actually we were not completely liberated gays, we still had a few serious chips on our shoulders… about keeping certain aspects of our lives “private”. It always took me quite a while before a new person earned my trust trust and I could reveal the sex of my allusive partner.”

Ottolenghi had his “second” coming out as a Gay Father in an essay published in 2013. It describe the long process of having their first son conceived via surrogacy. Although it can be expensive, he wanted other gay men know that they too could have families of their own.

Ottolenghi always wanted to have children because of he grew up in a nurturing family. He was in his early 40s abs wanted to inject some new meaning into his life. His partner Karl had some reservations. Until he met Ottolenghi, he never considered having children. But in the end, he agreed - twice!