Rating: 
Summary: Odd photo choices for a cookbook
Review: I am a fan of Lawson's cookbooks, shows, etc..., however, this book is really perplexing to me. The recipes are tasty, if you can get past the weird photography. I mean, some of the photos are downright disgusting and not delicious looking in the least. For example, the ham in coca cola looks like well, something you'd find in the dumpster at the Honeybaked store. And it's a ham for chrissakes! Hams love the camera! This is the ugliest picture of a ham. Ever. Blech. The lamb with pomegranate is particularly distracting, as are the lentils with sausages.I don't know if the photographer has an eating disorder or what, but the photos are nasty. Someone on that staff has a weird relationship with food. And let's face it, half the reason you buy a cookbook is for the beautiful, airbrushed photos of dishes that will never look that way when you make them for yourself. But it's nice to know it's possible. This is a book to get out of the library and photocopy the recipes you want. Sans photos.
Rating:
Summary: Odd photo choices for a cookbook
Review: I am a fan of Lawson's cookbooks, shows, etc..., however, this book is really perplexing to me. The recipes are tasty, if you can get past the weird photography. I mean, some of the photos are downright disgusting and not delicious looking in the least. For example, the ham in coca cola looks like well, something you'd find in the dumpster at the Honeybaked store. And it's a ham for chrissakes! Hams love the camera! This is the ugliest picture of a ham. Ever. Blech. The lamb with pomegranate is particularly distracting, as are the lentils with sausages. I don't know if the photographer has an eating disorder or what, but the photos are nasty. Someone on that staff has a weird relationship with food. And let's face it, half the reason you buy a cookbook is for the beautiful, airbrushed photos of dishes that will never look that way when you make them for yourself. But it's nice to know it's possible. This is a book to get out of the library and photocopy the recipes you want. Sans photos.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing
Review: I am such a hard-core Nigella fan that when I found out that I was going on a trip to the UK last summer and that Nigella had a new cookbook out over there, I knew I HAD to have it so I hunted it down. It took days of searching but I finally found got a copy from Clarissa Dickson Wright's Cook's Bookshop in Edinburgh. They actually ordered me a copy. I am eternally grateful. I spent the whole six-hour flight home reading it and practically memorizing the recipes. I am beyond thrilled with it and I know you will be too. Especially recommended are her recipes for ham in Coke and fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. BUY IT!
Rating: 
Summary: a fun cookbook with mixed results
Review: I approached this cookbook skeptically. It can be difficult to separate the cooking from the cult of personality, so to critique the recipes is to critique the woman. The cookbook has lots of chatter and lots of white space, but Nigella Lawson is a charming woman, so the chatter is friendly and companionable, and the book has lots of white space but it is slender and elegant and filled with beautiful photographs of every dish. Sections are organized as Breakfast, Comfort Food, TV Dinners, Rainy Day, Trashy, etc. These are more colorful than helpful, but one can find recipes by name or ingredient in the well-constructed index. No nutritional information is given for the recipes, but that's just as well. I've tried eight recipes so far (and have many more marked to try). Of those eight, I would say three were resounding successes: the icing for the chocolate fudge cake will be at the top of my list whenever I need an airy but flavorful frosting; the sweet corn pudding was very good; and the double potato and halloumi bake was delicious though I couldn't find the sheep's milk cheese required for two of the book's recipes, even at a gourmet cheese shop. Two recipes were servable if not very exciting. And three of the eight recipes did not work for me at all. My Mozzarella in Carrozza, for example, never resulted in a stretchy warm concoction that I could pull lustily from my teeth, my neck outstretched in voluptuous splendor, though I tried several times. Three additional comments: Several of the recipes I tried benefited from the addition of spice. Secondly, recipes have been lazily retooled from the metric units originally used, so instructions often call for multiple multi-measurement ingredients -- 1 cup + 2 T flour, 1/4 cup + 1 t sugar, etc etc. Finally, quite a few recipes call for self-rising flour; you can make the equivalent of 1 cup of self-rising flour by mixing 1 cup of all-purpose flour + 1-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder + 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Ultimately this is not a flawless effort, but Nigella has the charm and talent to pull off a successful personality cookbook, and though results might be mixed, the good recipes are archetypal. That ain't bad.
Rating:
Summary: Rather Disappointing
Review: I bought "Nigella Bites" since I'd enjoyed "How To Eat" and "How To Be A Domestic Goddess" and absolutely loved them. I thought that this book would be just as good. Sadly, I found "Nigella Bites" too similar in content, same jokes, same opinions, same old - same old. I guessed that maybe Nigella had said it all already and was just trying to push out another book. Truthfully, I love Nigella Lawson's style of writing, I relate to her attitude in the kitchen, her thoughts and her descriptions of the things she loves...I can't bare to watch her on TV. The book "Nigella Bites" is directly related to her TV series, I couldn't bring myself to sit through hours of watching her trailing through her home and entertaining her guests, to me its irrelevant. I wouldn't recommend this book, though would strongly recommend the two others above (I didn't read "Forever Summer" since the reviews were not good either). I am looking forward to the new release in November 2004 of "Feast" and am keeping my fingers crossed that it will be as exciting as her other books.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: I bought this book based on Nigella's two excellent previous books, both of which I own and have used. Nigella Bites appears to be an attempt to quickly exploit the buzz of her show. Do the math: the book is half the thickness of How to Eat, with larger typeface, frequent half and full page pics, whole pages devoted to a single quote, and 2-4 lined empty pages per chapter for your notes. I would guess that there is about 15% of the content of each of her previous works, and I am being generous. Avoid this tie-in and buy one of her other books.
Rating:
Summary: A great addition to the Nigella Collection
Review: I confess: I am a Nigella groupie. I love her show, her books, her writing, and her overall take on life. She is an inspiration for forty-something women everywhere.
Nigella Bites is an excellent book both for those individuals who already have her previous tomes and for those new to the Nigella world. She includes new recipes and she updates previous ones (her famous ham with coca cola, for instance). I particularly appreciated the revising of her recipes-you felt as if you were evolving with her. It forced me to rethink my own dishes and it made me realize that recipes are not set in stone.
I have made a number of the recipes in this book including a lemon risotto for a casual cuisine club. All received good reviews. I would recommend that the cook watch the proportions of fat and calories in these recipes-Nigella lite can still be very good.
Nigella is not for everyone. She is not a cooking purist-doesn't claim to be-and she is not into spa cuisine (to say the least). Her overall British goddess act could get on some people's nerves. But if you do like her, she is a wonderful, witty companion in your kitchen. Each new book launches another great series of conversations with her.
Rating: 
Summary: Nigella Bites
Review: I do not love this cookbook. I absoutely love her show, but am not impressed with the cookbook at all. The recipes aren't all that enticing or even that great and it does not have very many recipes. I made the pasta & meatballs last night and it was good, but not what I would have expected from Nigella.
Rating:
Summary: TOO EXPENSIVE AND BLAND
Review: I found this cookbook to have terrible tasting recipies .I would not recommend this cookbook to any serious chef because they would laugh in my face.I found the outcome of all my strenuous effort I put into making these bland tasting dishes awful.ALL IN ALL THE RECIPES WILL LEAVE A BAD TASTE IN YOUR MOUTH.
Rating:
Summary: Great, great cookbook
Review: I got this as a Christmas present, and was happy to get it, but more for browsing through than actually cooking. But as I really read the recipes, I decided I had to try them because they really looked fun. Nigella takes all the pressure off, with a sort of attitude that she's just a really good friend who can cook, not an imposing, almighty, Julia Child type. Anyway, fun to make stuff so far has been the Ham in Coca-Cola, the creammy scalloped potatos,the mozzarella in carrozza, chocolate fudge cake, and the South beach black bean soup, which is excellent. My only flop was the salmon fish cakes, which grossed me out because I'm not used to canned salmon, so that's my fault, not Nigella's. This is a colorful, pretty cookbook, and so unique. I highly recommend it.
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