Yotam Ottolenghi is a London Restaurant Legend.

I have been following him for ages on line in The Guardian where he has a fabulous column called The New Vegetarian.

Initially Guardian readers were not happy with the fact that he was not a vegetarian at all – he would offer a salad recipe to serve with lamb chops!

John and Lynne Ford ran a shop Main Ingredient in Sea Point I went in one morning and a customer came in and asked for an unusual spice mixture called za’atar.  Lynne said: ”Oh you’re cooking from Ottolenghi are you?”  “Yes!” was the reply and Lynne told me that since Ottolenghi: The Cookbook appeared their sales of Middle Eastern Spices had gone through the roof.  She could spot them a mile off!

Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi is the sort of book that will make you cry that at last you have found it!  Fabulous, pretty food!  It will make you want to go into the kitchen and start cooking this amazing man’s even more amazing food.

It is visually beautiful, the flavours are so zingy.  The photos in the book make you reach for a napkin to control the mouth juices running

A gift at R415 as it is going to change your life in your kitchen.  From your favourite bookshop

The closest you’ll get to the Ottolenghi magic is at The Kitchen in Main Road, Salt River, Karen Dudley’s emporium where you may kneel before the altar of some of the most exciting food in town.  Serve yourself stuff with workers from surrounding offices and warehouses popping in for fabulous sandwiches – ask for the Love Sandwich – and take away containers of flavourful food.  Go to Karen’s Website here.

If you want the spices, contact John and Lynne at Main Ingredient on 021 439 5169.