Yotam Ottolenghi cooks live on stage from his new book Simple Too, a companion to Simple, and answers the audience’s kitchen questions.
Yotam Ottolenghi, the chef and author of Simple, cooks live from his new book Simple Too at the Barbican Centre on Monday 7 December 2026. The stage is Barbican Hall.
Ottolenghi was born in Jerusalem and moved to London in 1997, where he trained at Le Cordon Bleu. He opened his first deli in Notting Hill in 2002 with Sami Tamimi.
His books include Plenty, Jerusalem, Simple and Flavour. His recent books come out of the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen, the team that develops his recipes.
Simple Too is a companion to Simple. Its vegetable-led dishes, tray bakes and desserts each take under 30 minutes, use one pot or can be made ahead.
On stage he cooks from the book and tells the stories behind it. He then answers the questions he is asked most: how to make a weeknight meal more exciting, what a well-stocked pantry holds, and how plain ingredients give big flavour.
The Barbican date is his one London evening on a tour that also plays Copenhagen, Munich, Rotterdam and Cologne.