My relationship with Ottolenghi's food is complicated to say the least...

Ever since the age of 18 when we were finally old enough to host dinner parties, I’ve heard Ottolenghi’s name thrown about in the kitchens of my friends’ homes. He became a household name very quickly for my white friends, who praised his recipes and owned all of his cookbooks.

One evening, as they raved about his food, I quietly leafed through his book ‘Ottolenghi Simple’ and was disappointed to see recipes titled: ‘Pappardelle with rose harissa’, ‘braised eggs with leeks and za’atar’, ‘dukkah crusted feta with heritage tomatoes’ etc. Arab flavours all used under an Israeli chef’s name – my first exposure to Israeli colonisation through food.

It enraged me. How could all my friend be so blind as to claim to cook Arab food made by an Israeli chef?

I subtly dropped names of other cooks that were actually Arab making authentic Middle Eastern food (e.g. Joudie Kalla), but no one was interested. Ottolenghi had captured their budding chef minds.

Curiosity got the best of me, and on my arrival home that evening after eating an entirely Ottolenghi-made meal, I Googled him. I was shocked to see he’d made a name for himself in the gastronomy world using Arab flavours, but was more surprised to see a cookbook of his titled Jerusalem.

Co-written by Ottolenghi and Palestinian chef Sami Tamimi, the book contains recipes such as freekeh, chicken with cardamom rice, sharmula bream with rose petals, fig and arak trifle etc. Upon finding out we in fact owned that cookbook, as I rifled through the pages I thought to myself how strange it was that not one of my Ottolenghi-obsessed friends owned this book, or knew he had a collaboration with a Palestinian chef.

Both Tamimi and Ottolenghi present what their ideal Middle East is, as "a modification of the Israeli vs Palestinian nationalist narrative” which they see as "a shared regional food culture, not an antagonistic one."

It’s up for interpretation whom the audience of this cookbook was intended to be. For the amateur middle-class chef who wants to experiment in the kitchen? Or for the advanced cook who wants to cook authentic ‘Middle Eastern’ food. It’s said that the book isn’t meant for those native to the areas discussed in the book, but rather for those internationally who wish to be a part of the discussion.

The book received glowing reviews, named “a magical feast” by BBC Good Food Magazine and a “memorable book” by The Guardian etc. The New York Times called the effects of the book “Jerusalem fever”, and it was generally well-received by mainstream outlets.

Despite this, as an Arab myself I have several criticisms, mainly that it seems to wash over past injustices over Palestinian people. By not fully acknowledging Palestine’s history and the coloniser role that Israel plays, it normalises such events and leaves little to no space for critical analysis and discussion.

Just recognising Palestine by including authentic Palestinian dishes, simply isn’t enough and creates an image of ambivalence towards the topic. Professor Ilan Zvi Baron at Durham University claims that the book contributes to the “food washing” of the region, which I can strongly agree with, since not having some form of an obvious objection to the colonisation of the region in the introduction of the book creates room for doubt.

Ottolenghi admitted in 2013, that he had some regrets with the book, and that he would have rewritten the introduction differently if given the chance again. He said “I would have taken the whole aspect of appropriation and ownership more seriously. It's overwhelmingly true that some of those dishes are the symbols of the Palestinian culture, and as such they just cannot become everybody's sign of culture or identity.”

Additionally to their partnership on this book, Ottolenghi co-owns five restaurants in London with Sami Tamimi but solely has the fame and recognition from this. Since the delis are named after Ottolenghi, one would not be able to guess that they’re owned by them both. It makes one wonder how and why Tamimi could have agreed to this…

I recently had a conversation with a Lebanese friend about how exasperating the new wave of celebration of Arab culture has been. We delved deep into the ‘why’ of this, and came to the conclusion that our frustration has come from years of oppression, racism and discrimination. Years of the West telling us we’re too loud, too ‘much’ and our food too complicated. For so long, we’ve been singled out and criticised, struggling to be accepted into mainstream society. Now in the 21^st century, our food is ‘exotic’ and exciting, and Western countries enjoy testing and trialling our recipes but under the umbrella of Israeli or ‘Middle Eastern’ cuisine.

Furthermore, for someone who claims to be such an ally of Palestine and its people, Ottolenghi is yet to release a single statement after the genocide in Gaza began, leaving me and other Arabs alike to assume his supposed support was performative after all.

To describe the experience of being served Ottolenghi dishes as jarring is an understatement. I can safely say that I will personally continue to avoid his work and if I wish to cook food from my homeland, rest assured it won’t be from one of his cookbooks.