Nigella, will you marry me? (How to Eat - Nigella Lawson)

Member Name: thevenerablebede

Product:	How to Eat - Nigella Lawson
Date:	23/01/02 (572 review reads)
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Nigella. Nigella. Nigella. How can I ever thank you? You came into my kitchen and you gave without taking. You changed the way I cooked. And, dear reader, I do not exagerate. How to Eat is a simply fantastic book that that has a place in every kitchen

In many ways this is a beginner’s manual. Nigella, well we are on first names terms, is happy to go back to basics and get you started on stuff that you know you ought to already know. In the first section ‘basics’ she talks you through essential ingredients and equipment you will need and some basic notions of good food. Her overriding principle is one of enjoyment. That we should enjoy eating (and she makes no irritating asides about calories although there is a ‘low fat’ section towards the end) is the prime directive. But her triumph is that she is not patronising or demeaning. Indeed, Nigella offers an enthusiasm that makes it seem as if the book itself was her own voyage of discovery. A great example of this zeal comes when she offers her recipe for batter. Forming part of her section on ‘weekend lunches’ Nigella explains where she got the recipe and how well it has served her. And I have no complaints. Her recipe helped me create a truly majestic yorkshire pudding.

I have tried and tested so many of these recipes that I shan’t bore you with the details of my favourites and rather pick out my absolute favourites. Her Roast lamb lunch is sublime. The chicken soup divine. The roast chicken (basically, shove a lemon up its arse) enchanting. Her choclately pudding are also truly inspirational. And I know I have squillion more recipes yet to try and Nigella seems keen to keep writing so I am not afraid of running out yet.

Not only are the recipes fantastic, the book is well written. I love her personal reminisces. Every recipe has a story behind it and she manages to transmit her very real excitement on every page. It is truly a pleasure to re
ad and, indeed, I kept it by my bed as a reading books for some months. It also progresses and flows better than some of the crapper novels I have read. Her prose is also peppered with humour. I laughed out loud when she commented that her penchant for keeping unused egg whites has made her freezer look like a sperm bank and when she expressed her concern at her own habit of keeping bones for stock.

But the book is not without its faults. Her wayward notion that children should be fed quail eggs (kids like small things apparently) seems laughable, as is her sometimes prissy attitude to British cooking traditions. And really, the book needs more pictures. The cool minimalist style sometimes jars when what you really want and need is a luxuriant picture to entice and instruct. And really, I would like more than the single picture of the great woman herself. But that is maybe indulgent.

This book is a bible and friend. This book should be given out at school. We should abolish home economics and just give out the book How to Eat as the kids leave school. I urge you to rush out and buy it immediately. You will not be disappointed.

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