In a column, Yotam Ottolenghi explores autumn cooking traditions, pairing a roast chicken in peppercorn sauce with an apple cobbler, while reflecting on seasonal television favorites like The Great British Bake Off and The Traitors.
Television Schedules and Seasonal Comforts
The arrival of autumn television brings familiar formats back to the schedule, offering a predictable rhythm that contrasts with modern binge-watching habits.
The television season features the return of The Great British Bake Off, which features Nigella as a new judge. Meanwhile, the celebrity edition of The Traitors has also returned, highlighting Richard E Grant, who previously cooked with the food writer last year and immediately demonstrated his eccentricity by sniffing every kitchen surface without giving any explanation. During the celebrity show, Grant broke the single most indisputable rule by revealing he is a traitor twice.
This scheduled television viewing pairs with a seasonal shift in home cooking. As soups, pies, jacket potatoes, and butternut squash return to the kitchen table, roast chicken remains a constant staple throughout the year. While spring preparations favor bright and briny profiles featuring capers, olives, and oregano, colder months call for heavier herbs and rich, creamy sauces.
The Peppercorn Roast Chicken Centerpiece
The centerpiece of Ottolenghi’s seasonal menu is a whole roast chicken served directly at the table, drawing flavor inspiration from classic steak au poivre. The dish incorporates peppercorns, mustard, and cream, creating a pungent and hot sauce that pools beneath the bird during roasting.
To ensure even cooking and presentation, the recipe relies on a spatchcocked bird, prepared either by a butcher or at home using a standard flattening technique.
Leftovers from the spatchcocked roast are intended for sandwiches the following day. For side dishes, the recipe requires minimal accompaniments: charred green beans or buttered peas, alongside heavily garlicky roasted potatoes suitable for a shared Sunday meal.
Apple and Blackberry Cobbler Adaptations
For dessert, the column shifts focus to crumble-adjacent dishes designed to be served alongside double cream, ice cream, custard, or clotted cream.
The author also shares a colleague Kate Carruthers’s family recipe for a nana’s apple crunch, a complete dessert featuring layers of baked apple, custard, and a granola-like crunch on top, which was regularly wheeled out at every family event in a big Pyrex bowl.
The topping departs from standard milk and butter combinations by utilizing double cream, which yields a softer and more tender texture. This dessert anchors a broader culinary family of onomatopoeic baked fruit dishes, including slumps, grunts, buckles, and sonkers, served warm to mark the transition into colder weather.
