Celebrate life with Nigella! (Feast: Food That Celebrates Life - Nigella Lawson)

Member Name: SophieRainbow

Product:	Feast: Food That Celebrates Life - Nigella Lawson
Date:	12/08/09 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Extensive, variety of recipes, tasty recipes, well-written, nice to look at, good value

Disadvantages: Bulky, layout makes some recipes hard to find

Infamous for her full-fat recipes, sexual inuendos and enjoying her food, Nigella is one of the most popular female chefs (perhaps second to the more housewifely, respectable Delia Smith) and rightly so. Her recipes are technically good, taste brilliant and are written with passion.

*Look and layout*
The front cover of the new edition which I own - with Nigella laughing on the front and red text - is much more attractive, appealing and (I think) relevant to the text than the original image of a large cooking pot with the word Feast ingrained in it. While the latter gives me the impression of mass-catering, school dinners, stews and Oliver Twist, the new edition is vibrant, with a slightly blurred photo in motion, and real life energy. The inside cover of voluptuous red cherries continues the colour scheme and summarises what Nigella herself is about: indulgence, beauty, pleasure. There is also a ribbon page marker attached.

The book begins with a contents, showing the chapters organised, rather than by type, by occaision, including Passover, Breakfast, Hallowe'en, Wedding Feast and a Georgian Feast. There is an introduction which shows Nigella's endless passion for food and the concept of the book: that food and life are completely intertwined and essential to each other. Each chapter has a similar introduction relating to the occaision and Nigella's experiences: these introductions are informally written, descriptive and interesting. At the end there is a list of stockists and a simple index.

Due to the slightly choatic jumble of different recipes, it can be hard to browse this book to find what you are looking for as you would, with other books, browse through the cake section if you wanted to make a cake. However, this is all in line with the concept of the book, as it is about food and life and life is chaotic and organised by actions and events rather than by bunched up categories.

The layout may be advanatgeous to those wanting to organise a dinner party or other event and follow the recipes entirely (for example there is a a "Valentine Dinner For Two" or a "Scandi-Supper For Six").

The photographs are nicely taken and incorporated with simple layouts but which show little imagination. Photos of Nigella are sprinkled lovingly through the mix. The photos are of varying sizes (from full page to wallet-size) and maybe 1 in 4 of the recipes have relating photos: this ratio of text to pictures is a little low for me, as I like to know what I am cooking. However generally, the recipes without photos are for dishes whose look is simple or well-known (e.g. cauliflower cheese, pork loin).

*Recipes*
There is a great mixture of recipes jumbled into this book, all of which seem not well-researched (as with Delia Smith and her team) but well lived-in and loved by Nigella and her family and friends.

The serving sizes vary from meals for one to cookies for 10 to suppers for eight. The cuisines covered include Turkish, Venician, Scandinavian, Scottish and Indian. There is a good balance between simple and complex, cheap and expensive, sweet and savoury, with the easy "Cupboard pasta" in the Kiddifeast section, to the 27-ingredient chicken Cardamon Chicken in the Wedding Feast section.

The recipes have a nice bold capital lettered title, Nigella's little bit about the origins of the recipe in her life, followed by the emboldened ingredients list and serving size. Measurements are given in grams not ounces, and oven temperatures in gas mark and degrees C. There is a handy note at the side of some recipes in grey text which does not intrude on the recipe itself, such as how to transform a loaf cake into a birthday cake, or to make something ahead.

The recipe body is laid out in paragraph form rather than numbered. It is beast to skim over the recipe before cooking because of this, but generally the recipes are still easy to follow.

The recipes are well written, with some nice embellishments by Nigella, such as use of more literary than culinary terms, like a 'boule' of ice cream, letting things 'spill' over the plate, and the description of sensations like "the sharp blade biting into the ludicrously soft, damp flesh of the [mozzarella]". These do not get in the way of precision or understanding the recipes.

This book is a joy to flick through and the recipes are a joy to cook. I have yet to try many of the delights featured in it, but I feel this sort of volume (472 pages) is a book for life. It has inspired me to use food to celebrate, to celebrate food and most importantly celebrate life.

Summary: A beautiful recipe book that's for life not just for Christmas, or Valentine's day, or Hallowe'en...