CRAFT by Under My Host® Issue No. 15 Classics | Page 131

then the object here is just to get it as deli-
cious as possible). Yotam might swing by if I
want to get a second opinion, then we have a
final tasting before I write the recipe up. From
here, it goes to either our Bakery production
unit, who will test to see if the recipe is fea-
sible for large scale production, or else to the
individual pastry chefs in each of the stores
for them to produce. This sounds easier than
it is in reality as the conditions vary from my
kitchen so there can be quite a bit of tweak-
ing and adjusting until it formally becomes an
“Ottolenghi product.”
How, if at all, do your Australian upbringing
and Chinese Malaysian heritage influence
you in the kitchen?
I have a great deal of creative freedom in my
role at Ottolenghi. For the most part, it is up
to me to develop products, anything that cap-
tures my imagination and that I think would
fit the stores. Occasionally I will be directed
by feedback from our shop staff, or particu-
lar customer requests. Inspiration can come
from anywhere—travels, books, conversa-
tions etc. For example, recently, after a friend
raved about a Bakewell tart she had eaten, I
thought it was time I had a go at making it.
I’d never really understood the appeal of the
Bakewell, it always struck me as being kind of
unbalanced—sweet pastry, jam and cake alto-
gether, and always a bit … dry. So I began by
making a traditional version, then bit by bit I
deconstructed it, then reworked each compo-
nent; the pastry base, the cakey middle, var-
ying the nuts, adding fresh fruit, playing with
the temperature of the bake etc. As is the pro-
cess with most recipes, there are often a num-
ber of combinations and permutations before
I feel I have a product that is ‘new’. It doesn’t
necessarily have to be entirely original, but it
does need to have some angle or point of dif-
ference (unless it is a completely classic thing,
like chocolate chip cookies, for example, and
Australia has great produce and Australians in
general, take their food very seriously, so in
that context my obsessiveness is not out of
place. Chinese Malaysians are also quite crit-
ical when it comes to food, and dislike other
people messing with their cuisine, and I’d have
to say that I’m a bit of a purist at heart. I still
romanticize about the street food in Malaysia,
and love the hawker stalls where it is not un-
common to find generations of one family to-
tally committed to making just one dish year
after year. I identify with this idea of trying
to get things right, and taking pride in doing
it well over and over again. Food is also syn-
onymous with hospitality for the Chinese—all
occasions big and small are celebrated with
food—and we show our love and appreciation
through our cooking.
Where do you find culinary inspiration?
Truly, everywhere! Reading is a huge source,
and talking to people from other cultures is
another. For example, I have a friend whose
family came from Iran, and earlier this year I
made some traditional Persian sweets to take
to Nowruz, the celebration of their new year. I
had never made them before, but was guided
by a book my friend had given me (Margaret
Shaida’s The Legendary Cuisine of Persia).
One of the items was a pastry made with yo-
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