Every once in a while a cookbook comes along that speaks not only to your passion as a cook, but to your heart as well.

Jerusalem is one such book – from the well designed, stroke-able fabric cover, the matt paper on which it is printed, the enticing food photography by Jonathan Lovekin, the exquisite shots of the city and the people by Adam Hinton that put the food squarely in perspective, the evocative writing to the enticing recipes, it is a book to have and to hold forever, to stroke, to read, to look at the pictures and to cook from.

Written by the inimitable team of Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi who were both born in this amazing city – Sami on the Arab east side and Yotam in the Jewish west.  They met in London some 30 years later, where they discovered that they “had a shared language, a history and a love of great food”. ‘The flavours and smells of this city are our mother tongue… we want to offer our readers a glimpse into a hidden treasure, to explore our culinary DNA, to unravel the sensations and the alphabet of the city that made us the food creatures we are.”

What a privilege and a joy it is to share their nostalgic trip with them through this exceptional book.