Chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s London Take a look at Kitchen Is Pure Pleasure

Location: North London is home to the second (and hopefully final) iteration of Yotam’s workspace.

The before: “It was part of Marks & Spencer, a big department store,” shares Nina. “I think it was their storage. It was in a quite rough state.”

The inspiration: “It’s all inspired by the Ottolenghi universe,” Nina explains. “The kitchen reflects his books and his food. It’s all colorful and very Middle Eastern, which is a relaxed, accessible way of cooking. They were keen on having an eye-catching background where they can display all their jars of ingredients because they film there all the time. For daily cooking, the containers are at-hand and visible, but they also create a lot of atmosphere.”

Square footage: 63 square meters (approximately 678 square feet).

Budget: “It was a modest budget,” admits Nina. “There were restraints.”

Main ingredients:

Backsplash and kitchen cabinets: Durat Palace recycled plastic terrazzo. “We wanted to find materials that were suitable and durable for a professional kitchen and at the same time also recycled and renewable,” Nina says.

Floors: Forbo vinyl. “It had to be anti-slip in the kitchen,” reasons Nina. “It had to have that practicality.”

Inlays: Ottan Studio food-waste panels.

Counters and islands: Stainless steel.

Bar cabinets and dividing shelf: Valchromat by Investwood. “It’s full-colored MDF,” Nina details. “It’s a quite sustainable material to use. You can mill into it, so it’s cost-effective too, not having to put handles on.”

Storage units, desks, and sliding door: Plywood with thick yellow etching. “We had a really short turnaround time for the first project and materials were harder to buy during lockdown, so we didn’t dare pick anything that wasn’t off-the-shelf or was from abroad,” Nina recounts. “That would’ve been too risky.”