Helen Goh

And he's the author of some of the most influential cookbooks of the past decade, including Jerusalem, which he co-wrote with his Palestinian business partner, Sami Tamimi, and the vegetarian cookbooks, Plenty and Plenty More.

Now he's got a new book of desserts out called Sweet, co-written with his pastry chef, Helen Goh.

And as Yatam explained to me, the process of testing all the recipes for a book like this, well, it's a process.

So at 11 a.m. when you taste your first things, because I skipped breakfast, I know I'm going to get so much food later on, everything tastes wonderful.

And earlier in your career, you were better known for cooking for savory things, even though I know that early on in your career as a chef, you started in pastry.

Which type of person are you at your core? Do you feel are you a cook or a baker? Yeah.

You know I'm not going to give you a straight answer, right? Yeah, I started my professional life in a kitchen really being a pastry chef and I've had much more training as a pastry chef.

I worked longer in pastry.

I'm, I'll play along.

And many years ago, The New York Times wrote an article about Helen Goh.

Mm.

So Helen Goh is a, a London-based baker.

She has collaborated with Ottolenghi on his book Sweet.

Um, she now has, uh, her own book, which just won a James Beard Award called Baking and the Meaning of Life.

Engineering by Matt Boynton of Ultraviolet Audio.

Original music by Megan and Marcus Begala.

Erin Jean McDowell, friend of King Arthur, legendary baker.

Helen Goh is a London-based baker.

She now has her own book, which has won a James Beard Award.

Carla Lally, thank you for coming on Things Bakers Know.