Delia's How to Cheat at Cooking - Delia Smith

When I first heard about this book, I was sure that it was a must have, since anything that saved time in making meals had to be a good thing. I had a quick flick through the book in Tesco during a grocery shopping trip and thought some of the recipes looked quite nice. Since it was fast approaching my birthday, I suggested to those asking for ideas, that I wouldn't mind a copy of the new Delia book. Now I have never read, let alone owned a delia smith cook book before, so I cannot compare, and did not know what her general style in cooking was. I simply thought it looked a good buy. How very wrong I was, and I now regret even suggesting it as a birthday ...  Read the complete review

First things first, I can cook to an average level, but I am certainly no chef! I was also a student for five years so have tried just about every combination of microwave, packet, frozen and "just add water" food available. When I saw this book trailed like mad on just about every TV channel and in all the newspapers a few months ago we decided to give it a try. After all, even though I do enjoy cooking, I rarely have the time or inclination to do anything too complex, particularly during the week. The Author The book is written by the rather legendary Delia Smith OBE. I think most people will have seen (if not used) her previous books ...  Read the complete review

I have rather mixed feelings about this book. I am quite serious about my cooking and cook from scratch for my family every day. So when I first heard about this book, my first thought was 'that's not for me'. But it was recommended to me by someone, so I thought I'd give it a try. Some of the recipes are a kind of odd half way house between ready meals and proper cooking. For example, the lasagne which uses tinned beef and ready made sauces, and the shepherds pie, also using tinned beef and prepared potato. Now I confess, I haven't tried these recipes, but really if you were going to use ready made ingredients, why not just buy a ready meal and save the ...  Read the complete review

It was admittedly a surprise when delia decided to tell us all how to cheat at cooking but the truth of it is, this book has very little content. I do not need to be told to defrost ingredients to use them as though they were fresh, and there is nothing revolutionary about using things from tins or jars instead of making your own. Delia seems to be new to this area of cooking, and doesn't seem to see that this is how the average modern person cooks anyway! If it's so easy to do, then we shouldn't really need her to tell us about it. Another thing that should be mentioned is that she is trying to squeeze unnecessary ingredients into food. A ...  Read the complete review