Rating: 
Summary: Celebrity Cookbooks are often disappointing. So is this one.
Review: If you are already a fan of Nigella Lawson and her television program, you may find this book charming and worthwhile. I, who have never seen her show, found it to be fairly worthless as a cookbook of substance. For as large and expensive a book as it is, it really has very little content, and the haphazard selection of recipes have nothing in common except that they were at one time or another featured on her show. I am sure there are some lovely recipes in here, but I didn't find any that I was interested in making, and the hit-or-miss nature of this sort of random compliation practically guarantees that many others will have the same experience. In other words, it reads less like a helpful, informative cooking book, and more like a quick way to cash in on Ms. Lawson's current popularity without having to make the effort of actually writing a new book. I would recommend you avoid it in favor of any book that purports to specialize in something that interests you - you'll stand a much better chance of finding the recipes you need to expand your repertoire.
Rating:
Summary: Celebrity Cookbooks are often disappointing. So is this one.
Review: If you are already a fan of Nigella Lawson and her television program, you may find this book charming and worthwhile. I, who have never seen her show, found it to be fairly worthless as a cookbook of substance. For as large and expensive a book as it is, it really has very little content, and the haphazard selection of recipes have nothing in common except that they were at one time or another featured on her show. I am sure there are some lovely recipes in here, but I didn't find any that I was interested in making, and the hit-or-miss nature of this sort of random compliation practically guarantees that many others will have the same experience. In other words, it reads less like a helpful, informative cooking book, and more like a quick way to cash in on Ms. Lawson's current popularity without having to make the effort of actually writing a new book. I would recommend you avoid it in favor of any book that purports to specialize in something that interests you - you'll stand a much better chance of finding the recipes you need to expand your repertoire.
Rating: 
Summary: Not your basic cookbook
Review: If you are looking for a book that has recipes for cooking everything, then this is not what you are looking for. But what you do get with "Nigella Bites" is a lively conversation with the lovely Nigella Lawson and a handful of great recipes to work into your own repertoire. She has given us recipes that are perfect for the work week, requiring little time and easily obtainable ingredients. And she also has a section for the weekend dishes when you do have the time to linger in the kitchen. The chicken with chorizo and kale, lemon risotto, salmon fishcakes, corn pudding and linguine with pancetta and garlic oil are all integrated in my meal rotation.
Rating: 
Summary: A Matter of Taste
Review: Like all cookbooks, success or failure depends entirely on the recipes contained therein. How to Be a Domestic Goddess was absolutely packed with foodstuffs I couldn't wait to tie on my apron and try but Nigella Bites is more miss than hit. It was nice to have full access to all the TV recipes without having to scramble for a pen and scrap paper whenever it came on E! but convenience isn't enought to justify the price tag. As always, the numerous photos are appreciated and let you know whether or not you've gone horribly awry in the cooking process but the many blank pages for 'notes' are a waste of space. No one who's just shelled out twenty-five dollars for a cookbook is going to deface it (Just take notes on bits of paper and tuck them into the appropriate pages like everyone else for heaven's sake, Nigella).But these are niggling details in the grand scheme of things; whether or not you should buy this book hinges solely on what your eating urges are. Each section is a essentially a 'themed' meal- White Trash, Dinner for Two, Rainy Day Supper, etc- so altogether you only get about 8 different recipes for any given course. Looking for lots of appetizers? Tough. Want a wide variety of main courses? Too bad. Need to satisy your sweet tooth? Invest in 'Domestic Goddess' instead. This book is more your style if you want to try a little bit of everything: A Nigella sampler. All told, despite being a rabid Nigella food fanatic, I only found about 6 recipes I really wanted to try and I've only gotten around to cooking two of them: Chocolate Pots and Mozzarella Carraviggio. They are both delicious but very rich; any more than one helping and you'll find yourself feeling sick. Mozzarella is the worst offender, being essentially a fried grilled cheese sandwich that sits very heavily in your stomach. It's more than a little ironic that the book most directly tied into the show that made Nigella famous to American audiences is quite possibly her weakest effort.
Rating:
Summary: Yummy
Review: Love to cook and within 2 days of owning this book, cooked 3 of the entrees, and one of the desserts (rice pudding). Easy to follow and all recipes adapt well to slight changes to suit personal taste or cooperation from the pantry! Could do without the calorie ridden section filled with Elvis peanut butter fried sandwich, but all other sections are fabulous. Looking forward to cooking from her other books.
Rating: 
Summary: The Sorrow of Cooking
Review: Most books about food are written by cooks who can write. Negella Lawson is writer who can cook. Her book, Nigella Bites, has the appearance and structure of a cookbook, but it is really about how she uses food to cope with suffering. And suffered she has. Despite a storybook life (her mother, was a beautiful heiress, her father, one of Conservative Party's most powerful ministers), Mrs. Lawson has lost first her mother, then her sister to cancer. Recently the disease took her husband after a four year struggle. Cookbooks generally don't tell you about who wrote them any more than do chemistry lab texts. Who was to know from reading the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book that a paralytic stroke prevented Fannie Farmer from attending college? Where in The Way to Cook does it indicate that Julia Childs worked for the Office of Strategic Services (the forerunner of the CIA)? Nigella Bites on the other hand is flavored through out by the writer's personality. We find out Mrs. Lawson has trouble sleeping some nights, she misses her sister, she suffers from the occasional hang over and doesn't like to waste food. Most of all we learn how what she feels about what she cooks. She is usually explicit about the emotional weight various recipes carry. Food is life. Eating is what separates the living from the dead. One can almost picture Mrs. Lawson in the middle of a sleepless night using the thin layers of a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich or a slice of chocolate fudge cake to buffer the darkness surrounding her. When she writes "you need to know there's something to stave off that moment of desolation that threatens to settle when the eating's done for the day" makes me wonder if the book could not have been titled The Sorrow of Cooking. Because she is better looking, a better writer, and a better cook than Martha Stewart she is currently be marketed here in the United States as sort of a British-Yiddish successor to the controversial homemaker/business executive/cultural icon. I think this is misplaced, since the two women represent two different aspects of the human experience and appeal to readers for different reasons. Even though the book is bit thin in terms of number of recipes (about 70 compared with 1,849 Farmer's first book) they are easy to make and highly original (deep-fried candy bars with pineapple anyone?) and the writing more than makes up for it. Can it be any surprise Mrs. Lawson won Author of the Year in the 2000 British Book Awards? This is that most rare of the genre, a cookbook worth reading even if you have no interest in cooking.
Rating:
Summary: Everyday Bites
Review: Nigella Lawson has sacheted onto the culinary scene as more a less a phenomenon, a culinary goddess -- and rightly so. In contrast to the chefs and restauranteurs who tackle the hard-covered written word to attest to their prowess in the business, Lawson shares her peculiar inclination to gravitate toward the formerly domestic confines of the kitchen, much to the delight of her fans.
Those who pooh-pooh Nigella Bites as merely a "Nigella Sampler" are right to certain a degree. The book is not as broad in scope as How to Eat or How to Be A Domestic Goddess. But part of its usefulness and charm is in its diminuitive standing in the Nigella anthology.
What most people get out of the book is its habitudinal friendliness. Recipes and tidbits satiate a variety of moods that set in at the office or as you walk through the door. With a lack of energy and hunger pains, the last thing you'd want to do is heave out a hefty collection of albeit delicious recipes. The book is fairly slim, reader friendly with a gargantuan font, and it's approachable at 7 p.m. when you need to unwind and eat before the rest of your evening is whittled away.
The themed chapters serve well for frequent cravings and emphasizing variety and (gasp) experimentation for the palette. The Temple Food chapter offers Lawson's favorite flavors of the still relatively undiscovered cuisine of Vietnam. Her penchant for the earthy lusty flavors of the Mediterranean also share the spotlight in fast variations on grandmotherly classics such as involtini, meatballs, and mozzarella in carozza.
A personal highlight was brief foray into traditional English cooking, which Nigella shamelessly admits to nostalgically adoring even as a chic writer/editor. The two must try recipes -- Lawson's gratin of potatoes (prepared unconventionally and tasting heavenly) and the English fave, Sticky Toffee Pudding -- in a word, unbelievable.
Rating:
Summary: Nigella's Done It Again!
Review: Nigella's third book is a companion to her wonderful televison series "Nigella Bites". Divided into ten sections ranging from All-Day Breakfast to Temple Food, the recipes in this beautiful book are as fabulous and irresistible as Ms. Lawson herself. With gorgeous photography of food, the introductions to the recipes are pretty much taken from the show and almost quoted verbatim, so for those who haven't had the luxury of seeing "Nigella Bites", you're getting the gist of what makes the TV show wonderful right on the printed page just by reading this book. I think what's excellent about Nigella is that anyone can make her food, and it's divine food, unpretentious yet very gourmet, for lack of a better word. There is no fussing about ingredients, e.g., like one requiring white truffle oil or some other expensive ingredient that you'll only need a teaspoon of, to make something that once seemed intimidating. Her Lemon Risotto is unmatched, and the Chocolate Cloud Cake is heavenly. I could go on and on... And who'd have thunk about deep-frying candy bars, hmmm? Nigella's ice cream recipe needs no ice cream maker. And the Ham in Coca Cola is a MUST! And I whole-heartedly agree with the reviewer from Everett, WA about the 24-hour roast shoulder of pork. Nigella Lawson has redefined my love for being in the kitchen, and her mantra is that the kitchen is a place that you escape to, not from, a mantra that I adhere to. Even if you're not one for cooking, I urge anyone to get this book, if not for the recipes, but for the photos and the inexplicable stress-relieving tone of this volume.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the wait for the U.S. edition
Review: The edition you will buy here has the U.S. measurements. I received my copy yesterday and am very pleased and can't wait to try these recipes!
Rating:
Summary: Gives legitimization to homey needs.
Review: This has become a very inspiring book for me that somehow gives legitimization to homey, comforting needs and the never accomplished wish for a perfect world... A perfect world cannot be ever achieved so a minor solution is to create a little perfection in the kitchen, a little sanctuary from the outside world.... This was the message of the book for me if it does not sound ridiculous to talk about a cook book message. Nigela Lawson herself does not use the word perfection but instead talks about cooking what suits you. All she wants is to give you new ideas for easier cooking, new ideas to experiment with and suggestions to cooking things you never thought about (do not tell me you ever thought about cooking Ham in Coca-Cola). I know there is a very clear-cut division between the admirers and the haters of Nigela Lawson. I myself have never heard about this woman before reading the book so it was a very "fresh" experience that got me hooked and curious to watch her on television. The book is a pleasure to read and I have to confess I read it in bed for the first time. The book gives you some life philosophy besides the recipes and the added value comes with the many beautiful pictures that are a pleasure and inspiration. I also confess that maybe the life philosophy and the recipes suit someone like myself who "lives to eat" and not the other way around and is ready to work a little for this goal. Nigela Lawson makes an effort to make the recipes as easy as possible, she uses several tips and tells you when you can skip a stage, but nevertheless it should be clear that with most recipes some work is involved.
As to the recipes themselves. So far I have tried 5 recipes. Four of them came out outstanding and these include the amazing chocolate fudge cake, and the soft and spicy invaltini eggplants, which have become a cornerstone of my kitchen. I also loved Grandma Lawson pastry and the Union Square spicy nuts. The fifth recipe (liftower dip) was surprisingly banal. However, I am still on my first stages and have marked the Ham and Coca-Cola-cola as a must.
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