YOTAM OTTOLENGHI
The master of Mediterranean cuisine, 48, joins the ‘Masterchef’ crew for a week of mezze, mystery and masterclass tips. (Airs Sun.–thurs., June 4–8, 7.30 PM; Ten)
How was your Masterchef week?
It’s been lovely because the contestants are all quite young and very able. I was so impressed by how much they knew: the techniques, the vegetables, the ingenuity ...
How across Australian cuisine are you?
I’ve been coming every couple of years and I find the things they do here really interesting. A lot of places have immigrants, but the different cuisines of various cultures here really interact. You have Europeans, Middle Eastern and then South-east Asian, all kind of together on the Australian barbie. And it makes sense when it’s cooked your way. Fusions don’t always work—here the mix just makes sense. The other thing is the enthusiasm here—it just breaks the scale. I was so impressed by how excited people are about their wine, their food, their coffee. Every time I come, it’s very inspiring.
You have not shied away from the subject of food as a political tool.
We’re at such a low point in the history of our world at the moment that anything you can do that delivers a message of normality is good. And food is a great normaliser—because it’s one of the few things that people have in common. In the days of Trump and all this bigotry, if you can sit down with someone from a different nation and enjoy food together, it’s a good thing.
What would you nominate as the great leveller food?
At the moment, everyone is talking chicken soup. Every culture has a chicken soup: Asia, Europe, Middle East, South America, North America. To get everyone together to cook a big chicken soup, it would just show how similar we all are in terms of our desires and our loves and basic needs.