Food has shaped the last twenty years as much as anything – from the way we cook to the way we gather. We offer tea and biscuits in good times and bad, celebrate with cake, and show love and care through the meals we cook for others. This Easter, we’re looking at three chefs who’ve each had a hand shifting the culinary space, and we’d like you to decide who’s made the biggest impact.
Yotam Ottolenghi reshaped how we think about flavour – bold, colourful, and built around ingredients that once felt unfamiliar.
Across his restaurants, cookbooks and weekly columns, he helped bring those flavours into everyday cooking – from tahini and sumac to a more confident, vegetable-led way of eating.
His “Matilda” cake is a good example. Deep chocolate, tahini running through it, finished with a ganache that leans fully into it. Generous, distinctive, and hard to forget.
Jamie Oliver redefined how a generation cooks at home – making food feel accessible, informal and something to share rather than perfect. Before social media chefs, Jamie Oliver was already shaping how we cooked, with recipes that moved between cultures and into everyday life – from 30-minute meals to school dinners, changing both what we ate and how we thought about it.
His hot cross scones follow that instinct. A familiar Easter staple, reworked into something softer, warmer, and best eaten straight from the oven.
Meera Sodha’s work has opened up everyday cooking in a different way – thoughtful, flavour-led, and quietly inventive. Meera’s plant-based approach to food feels expansive, flavourful and anything but restrictive. Across her bestselling cookbooks and weekly columns, she’s introduced a wider range of ingredients and influences into everyday kitchens.
Her tahini tiramisu takes something well known and shifts it just enough. Coffee, cardamom and mascarpone, with tahini bringing a softer edge.
NOMINATE YOUR OWN
If none of the shortlisted cultural chefs reflect your choice, you can put forward your own choice. Food culture has shifted in many directions over the last twenty years, and we know some of the most influential voices may sit outside this list. Tell us which chef you believe has had the greatest impact on how we cook and eat at home.
As part of our twentieth anniversary, we’re reflecting on the people and ideas that have shaped culture over the last two decades – in kitchens as much as on stages. Your vote helps decide which chef stands out as the most influential of that time. And if you’re planning your Easter table, you’ve got three very good places to start.
So, across the last twenty years, who do you think has had the greatest impact on how we cook and eat at home?
With love,
The Latitude Festival Team
