Learn to cook with Jamie (Jamie's Ministry of Food: Anyone Can Learn to Cook in 24 Hours - Jamie Oliver)

Member Name: dtait09

Product:	Jamie's Ministry of Food: Anyone Can Learn to Cook in 24 Hours - Jamie Oliver
Date:	30/07/09 (51 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good quality lay out, easy to follow

Disadvantages: price of book quite steep

Instead of my usual recycling of old ciao reviews (with improvements) this is my first exclusive dooyoo review, hope you enjoy: -

Jamie Oliver is a cooking phenomenon who usually gets on my nerves, especially in the sainsburys adverts where I feel patronised by his "eat for a fiver" range, like I want/need to spend £140 a month on cooking food. Does he know there is a credit crunch on?

However, personal differences aside I received his 'Ministry of Food - Anyone can learn to cook in 24 hours' book for christmas and was plesantly surprised with it. The book is well produced with high quality pictures throughout and well thought out sections.

The start of the book has Jamie's speel with hopes of getting you to teach a recipe to someone (pledge) and the usual pictures and info about kitchen equipment to use. Then it moves onto the various chapters which covers just about every range of needs from 'twenty minute meals', 'quick pasta', 'easy curries', 'family roasts', 'sweet things' etc. Each chapter has many recipes, each with details of ingredients, step by step instructions as well as Jamies special comments about each dish. Each recipe is on a double page spread, the information on the right, lots of pictures showing each stage on the left.

The has the nice touch of mini blogs from people around the UK who have learnt to cook with Jamie; their history of cooking, careers and comments. The book is in hard back quality and despite a few splashes of grease going on the pages, the quality of paper has keep this book looking its best.

The book is really easy to follow and even though I wouldnt call myself a beginner, I found it a book that could suit any skills really. Some of the dishes require lots of ingredients and steps which makes me think that the rookie's maybe put off but overall it is a good read and makes you want to try out some new dishes.

I think I have tried about 6 recipes that I hadn't before with varying levels of success, as well as a few different ideas to dishes I already cook; such as using crackers for binding burgers, instead of breadcrumbs that I normally use.

At £25 on the inlay I think this is a tad expensive, I mean how am I going to afford it as well as 7 meals a week for a fiver? Luckily as this has been out a while you should be able to pick it up much cheaper now than face value. I would recommend anything between £10-£15 being about value for money.

Summary: A good book for people with varying levels of skills