.... whenever someone says to me that 'so and so' celebrity is gorgeous and I google their image to basque in their handsomeness, I'm always disappointed. Most recent cases are Michael Fassbender (actor) and Feliciano Lopez (tennis player). To counter this, I urge you all to google Yotam Ottolenghi (chef). He's awesomly attractive and his cook books are lip-lickingly enticing.
I often walk along Upper Street in Islington and look across the road to the Ottolenghi restaurant, adorned with queues of attractive Islingtonians (there are no ugly people in that part of London, unless the 73 bus breaks down en route from Finsbury Park). As I gaze across, I wish I could overcome my lethargy for queueing or my past-its-sell-by date looks (all downhill after my first birthday) and infiltrate the North London glitterati as it gorges on its Caramelised Endive with Serrano Ham or Camargue Red Quinoa with Orange and Pistachios, all rounded off with a Brioche Galette (sounds so much nicer than 'flan').
No-one entering or exiting is overweight, dressed in BHS, wearing Clarks shoes or dangling an ASDA carrier bag. This is somewhere I would have to change my entire lifestyle in order to breath in its world of dried limes, mograbiah (big couscous) and abundance of fresh herbs. Every time I open my store cupboard and see the chaotic arrangement of Scwartz herb jars - many fatally past their best before dates - I know that to the great Yotam I would be a Jif lemon to his unwaxed, fresh, juicy lemon begging to be squeezed from the wicker basket display in Waitrose. He also has a degree in Philosophy. Imagine the luscious conversations we could have on the merits of introducing quinoa to the masses and whether they will subsequently rise up and demand more rocket and horseradish sauce to dip their chips in.
Today, I'm cooking a recipe from his first book - marinated rack of lamb with coriander and honey. I had to make the marinade last night and let the lamb soak in all the yumminess overnight. Chillies, ginger, garlic, coriander, mint, honey, soy sauce and more - it's got it all. And if that's not enough, the cookbook is littered with pictures of the great man himself. Awesome.
This is also one of those situations where I wish I was a man. He's gay.
I think you'd make a very good gay man.
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