In my restaurants and delis — as with
all restaurants and delis — there’s a lot
of movement: movement, turnover and
energy. Customers and dishes come and
go, seasons and menus change, one ser-
vice gives way to the next.
For all that things move forward and
change, some things remain reliably the
same — certain ingredients and particular
dishes have been stalwarts on the menu,
holding on steady as others pass through.
Ingredients-wise, the old-timers are
the lemons and aubergines, the chilies
and bottles of olive oil. The bunches of
coriander and parsley — big as bouquets
— tubs of creamy tahini and thick tangy
yogurt. These are always on our shelves.
If there’s one dish we are recognized
for, though, it’s the chargrilled broccoli
with thin slivers of fried garlic and red18 5.8.22 Photograph by Chris Simpson Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Sophia Pappas.
he roccoli tays: Deep-grilled fl avor and crisp
bite have kept this dish on the menu for years.
Eat By Yotam Ottolenghi
To keep its integrity,
broccoli really needs
to stay firm and not
be overshadowed
by anything too rich.chile, enhanced here with grilled lemon
and anchovies. It’s the dish our customers
always expect and defi nitely won’t let us
take off the deli menus. Who would have
guessed that this relatively unassuming
vegetable, so straightforwardly prepared,
would be ‘‘the one’’ with such longevity.
There’s nothing secret or complicated
about the dish, so it’s interesting, I think, to
wonder why it has always been so popular.