Rating: 
Summary: She brings the sensual art of cooking and eating to life....
Review: Nigella Lawsonis addictive, which is a good thing. This is a book that is long needed because I think (especially Americans) that most people have forgotten what cooking and eating is all about. Anyone who has seen her cook knows that she understands the sensual and alas spiritual aspects of cooking and eating food. This isn't about sex, but the art of food itself. And in an era of junk food and eat and run she is a refreshing bit of culinary sunshine.In fact I would suggest that this is a book that is as much about psychology and philosophy as it is about food and its preparation and enjoyment. And anyone who has seen her show on cable knows that she isn't afraid of food. She doesn't have that love hate relationship or a false mode that I think many television goddess types have. She is one cook-author whom I am assured doesn't purge after each taping and consuming of the food she has made. And her recipes work! They are as doable as they are good and nice to look at. I also like the fact that she has a variety of recipes and ideas and not just a certain genre. Quick ones. Make ahead ones. Ones for parties and gatherings of a few to many. One thing I hope people get from this and all her books is her sense of enjoyment. Be it the shopping, or preparing. I wish everyone could also see her television show which we watch on the Style channel because she does shows that deal with the contents of her freezer-refrigerator-pantry and while she certainly covers these subjects in this and her other books there is something visually and audibly tactile about her showing what's good to have on hand. I look forward to each new book she brings me since I learn so much. She also gives the term-title domestic goddess the respect it deserves...........
Rating:
Summary: Nigella is a Brilliant, British Babe--Who Can Cook!
Review: I first came across Nigella through the Style Network's airing of "Nigella Bites." I became an immediate fan. It's rare to find such an entertaining, witty, likeable and beautiful woman on TV. My favorite bit is that the show ends by Nigella raiding the 'fridge. Reading her book is a bit like watching her show--like having a very cool friend come over and teach you how to whip up some good food. Nigella talks about how she encourages her kids to eat healthful, her diet, and her food philosophy--which seems to be a combination of quality (organic) mixed with pleasure. Her recipes are easy to make, and the results are wonderful. I've yet to come across a bad one. Nigella just may surpass Martha some day--as she's refreshingly real.
Rating:
Summary: Best Cookbook Ever!
Review: How to Eat by Nigella Lawson is my favorite cookbook of all time, and let me tell you, I have read hundreds of them. This woman is a truly charismatic writer and a fantastic cook. Every recipe is exceptional and has a story behind it or serves a special purpose in the author's mind. I read it cover to cover the first day I opened it and have read bits & pieces of it a hundred times since. It is earmarked, highlighted, paper clipped and worn beyond recognition. I would recommend this book to home cooks & professional chefs alike. Her recipes have become at least a weekly occurrence in my home and my husband, friends & family have never been happier. For all of you newcomers to the world of cooking, there is no better teacher than one whom adores the eating process from shopping for ingredients to scrubbing pots & pans. Bravo - a true masterpiece!
Rating: 
Summary: Temperatures are way off
Review: I just bought HOW TO EAT after being a big fan of the show.I Love they way she talks about food, and just really appreciates food. She did a fabulous job with this book.
This book is truly a gift to share with others. Just like my new beverage of choice that replaced my morning brew. Its called s oyfee and taste so wonderful with no caffeine or acids. Organic and made from soya! Bye bye acid stomach and hello healthy tummy! Google it under "acid free coffee".I made the lamb shoulder (425 degrees for 30mins/lb???) - After about 20 mins my house was filled with smoke and I ruined the meat. Browsing the other recipes, I realized most of the oven temps seem really high - 400 degrees, for long periods of time. My advice, use common sense when cooking and don't go by the temps given here.
Rating:
Summary: this book is my bible
Review: I bought this book in the spring of 2000 and I have literally never put it down. Its spine is broken, its pages are dirty, and it is falling apart. It can take a lot love, strain, abuse and argument.
That said, when was the last time you had a really great teacher? This is probably the best and the most important cookbook that has been published in the last decade (the last big one, for me, was Sheila Lukins and Julie Rosso's New Basics). Nigella inspired me. Obviously, she knows how to make and serve superb food. But she can also write, in a voice that is straightforward, simple, and direct; and she makes you want to cook.
Her credo is directed toward those of us who eat well and also struggle in the kitchen at home: we are a generation of cooks who have been cowed in the kitched by "too much cheffiness," the endemic fussiness of restaurant food; and the subsequent intimidation we experience from professional chefs and food celebrities (clearly she wrote this before she became a superstar). Instead of trying to replicate restaurant food, she argues, we should consider the distinction between how we eat at home and how we eat when we go out. This book directs itself toward how we eat at home. And her answer is simple: make what you want to make, in the time that you're allowed to do it. Therefore, this book is organized by time and convenience, rather than by region or category. You get whole (albeit limited) menus, rather than exhaustive descriptions of one regional category or another.
I have probably cooked every recipe in this book and (like one of the previous reviewers) I have some of Nigella's recipes permanently under my belt--alas, in more ways than one. The parsley salad with red onion, capers, and lemon juice is a permanent fixture in my life now; so is her red wine onion gravy (for sausages and mash, even though I disobiently use chicken or turkey instead of pork). I make that @!%$ recipe for chickpea and pasta soup more than I can bear to admit, even to myself, because it's inexpensive and it works. Nigella even instigated enough courage in my soul to actually purchase and cook oxtails, and she was right: they are less trouble than you would expect, delicious (and cheap). I also completely understand her obsession with rhubarb . . . and linguine with clams . . . and ham cooked in cider . . . and creme caramel made with coconut creme instead of milk . . . and the pleasure of laying out nice things you bought at the store when you can't deal with imprisoning yourself in the kitchen.
In the meantime, you have her stories to keep you company--her family's celebrations and tragedies, the tribulations of raising small children, and the most beautiful drag queen in all of Florence.
What more could you ask? This book acts as a guide to the hidden culinary adventures possible in your own home. Familiar energizing ideas suddenly offer up new ones, and old neglected ones naggingly call your name until you get off your ass, go out and try something new
Four years later, I am not by any means finished with this book. It waits, open, spattered and torn, by the other cookbooks that I love to flip through but rarely use. It now forms part of the fabric of my life. Forget the hot shots and the style network . . . she an oracle of our modern age, where everything is available but we have no idea what to do with it.
Rating:
Summary: some thoughts on lovage and egg whites
Review: In response to a previous reviewer who complained that Nigella talks about lovage in her book, lovage can be grown in a garden, if you have one, or in a pot on your window sill, which I have on mine... - otherwise you can substitute with some chopped celery instead. I think it is great that she makes suggestions for different types of herbs to try out. It's always fun to try something new and different, instead of the same old same old. Nothing ventured is nothing gained.
Also in defense of the book, I freeze egg whites in small glass jars (- be sure to leave the lids loosely on and then they can be tightened later once everything has been frozen. This will lessen the chances of the glass cracking in the freezer...). I have never had egg whites picking up any bad odors.
This is a great cookbook with some great ideas, especially when you want to make something a little more special for when you have guests coming over for dinner. She also gives some good advice on how to stock your pantry. Cooking can sometimes be like a battle out there in the kitchen, and one can never go wrong or hungry with a well-stocked pantry.
Rating:
Summary: Savor this book for the recipes and writing style
Review: The recipes in this book are spectacular and simple (though the ingredients are a little exotic and pricey at times). Lawson's writing style and choice of words are wonderfully mellifluous, and the book is as much a pleasure to use as a cookbook as it is to read for pure enjoyment.
Rating:
Summary: A Rare Book on Strategies and Great Common Sense
Review: Nigella Lawson outlines life strategies for buying, preparing, and eating food in `How to Eat The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food'. She thereby does something rare and valuable for younger people starting out on life on their own or with new partners. She also warms the hearts of us old geezers who run through hunderds of books of recipes, techniques, and food characteristics, with little advice on how to use all this stuff. The closest I have seen in recent books to what Ms. Lawson does so well is in the opening chapter of Alton Brown's book on Kitchen Tools where he describes how to pare down you collection of tools to just those you really need and use. Ms. Lawson goes much deeper into uncharted territory. In comparing culinary wisdom to medical expertise, I would describe people such as Mario Batali and Nobu Matsuhisa as great specialists and Martha Stewart and Ina Garten as talented general practicioners who can give excellent diagnoses for the best pie crust or the perfect roasted turkey, but they simply don't touch the question of why do I want to make a pie crust, when, and how often. In this simile, Nigella is the holistic practicioner who treats the whole body. One of her first principles is the position that one should be much more concerned with repeating the basics and thereby doing them very well, to the point where your confidence with the techniques makes them second nature. The closest I have ever come to seeing this advice elsewhere is when Daniel Boulud says that the difference between a professional chef and the home chef (or the culinary journalist for that matter) is that the professional has prepared dishes thousands of times over and in that way has acquired a knowledge of their techniques and materials which a nonprofessional cannot match. I can add this to the number of lessons one can learn from professional chefs. I am in almost total agreement with practically every general strategy Ms. Lawson discusses. I sympathize totally with her devaluing the very tiring mantra of always cooking what is best and what is in season. This is fine if you live in Apulia or Napa Valley, but it is a bit rough on the old green veggie regimen if you live in London or Philadelphia. The failure to fully develop this theme in Ms. Lawson's later volume `Forever Summer' and other problems with that volume lead me directly to this book, as I was surprised at the other book's deficiencies, given Ms. Lawson's reputation and attention in the popular media. Ms. Lawson also writes as part of the community of culinary writers and not as if she is coming up with all sorts of good stuff out of her own ingenuity. Other writers state that they are building on other work, but are shy about citing specific references. Nigella is proud of her mentors, as well she should be, since they include people like Elizabeth David, Claudia Roden, and Marcella Hazan. Oddly, this is not to say Ms. Lawson's works are directed to the same end as the books of these notables. In a sense, she is taking the basic research of the regional specialists and translating it into advice for the rest of us. The book is divided into eight (8) rather unconventional chapter subjects, each one discoursing on a particular food strategy or principle. The chapters are: BASICS, ETC. develops the principle cited above that it is a good thing to prepare the same recipes often. Nigella here offers her candidates for some of the most important recipes for everyday use.
COOKING IN ADVANCE is her solution to the anxieties of cooking for entertaining. While others have mined this principle broadly, Lawson goes deeper into the issues of cooking without stress so you can make and recover from mistakes to gain your own style.
ONE AND TWO addresses the issues of cooking for others and revisits the `tyranny of the recipe' and the `absence of slowly acquired experience on the other'.
WEEKEND LUNCH offers this venue as a less stressful occasion for entertaining than the dinner party.
DINNER addresses the dreaded full court dinner party and weans us away from a type of restaurant dish which requires deft saute action in the kitchen while your guests are at the dining table.
LOW FAT is Ms. Lawson's take on weight maintenance and reduction. I am pleased to see that she focuses on the simplest fact that weight change equals food in minus calories consumed by activity.
FEEDING BABIES AND SMALL CHILDREN is a refreshing topic. It is a great pleasure to see this subject addressed by a main stream author and not just in a speciality title. I have always puzzled over the tyrrany of kids culinary proclivities and why adults so willingly caved into them. Ms. Lawson offers some advice on the matter. This is a very good book and I now know how Ms. Lawson has earned her good name in the culinary writing business. This doesn't mean I will stop referring to my Eric Rippert or even my Jamie Oliver, as these people are the really creative culinary figures from which Ms. Lawson and the rest of us will borrow, but I will look on their offerings in a new light. I highly recommend this book and that you read it from cover to cover, even the rug rat material. You never can tell.
Rating:
Summary: if I had to choose one cookbook, this would be it
Review: I love to cook, consider myself somewhat skilled at it, and have received a slew of cookbooks over the years. This is the only one I use on a regular basis, as Nigella is a great and entertaining writer, and her recipes are interesting and easy to follow. What makes this cookbook different from the myriad of others out there is that instead of giving you a strict set of directions to follow (reducing cooking to chemistry class), she encourages cooking to your own taste, purchasing the best ingredients, and developing technique. She's actually quite funny and engaging, and I read the whole book cover to cover when I first got it. Her approach makes "How To Eat" much more valuable to an experienced cook or even someone learning to than other books, as it makes you a better cook. I was honestly a horrible baker until I tried out some of her recipes; they've all turned out great and were remarkably easy. Ms. Lawson may be trendy and famous now, but it is actually warranted, and her show and cookbooks are far more useful and entertaining than those by various other celebrity chefs out there.
|
