Ask about comfort food and you’ll get as many answers as you have people. It’s quite clear that the comfort is so much more than the food: it’s the memories; the nostalgia; something that just gives you ‘that feeling’. Right food, right time, right place. For this book, flavour master Yotam Ottolenghi once again joins with members of the wider Ottolenghi team, bringing four voices to the table, voices that speak of Jerusalem and Amsterdam, Malaysia to Melbourne, Scotland and New York, culminating in London, from where they have woven their collective tales of nurture and nostalgia. I wondered if that might lend the book a disjointed, scattergun feel, but I should have known better. In Ottolenghi’s deft hands it’s a vigorous and inspiring collaboration: each comes to the kitchen pushing a trolley of experiences, influences and curiosity that they unpack with glee. It’s good enough when the recipe comes from a single member’s lexicon, such as Yotam’s ultimate street-food treat of cauliflower and butternut pakoras, but for me the synergy happens when the food memories collide, merge and make something new, a ‘sort of’ dish such as a shakshuka but with tamarind, ginger and chilli loosely based on Helen’s memories of Malaysian nasi lemak, which has echoes for Yotam of the baked eggs he grew up with in Jerusalem. I’ve cooked from this book a lot in the last few weeks – the charred eggplant squished into a Filipino-style omelette has already had several outings, even if the last one ended up on the floor due to a cack-handed flipping mishap – and while few of the 100+ recipes met my own ‘comfort food’ triggers, every single one I’ve cooked has been a treat. TRACY WHITMEY