Thumbs up for Jamie (Jamie's Ministry of Food: Anyone Can Learn to Cook in 24 Hours - Jamie Oliver)

Member Name: Glitterybee

Product:	Jamie's Ministry of Food: Anyone Can Learn to Cook in 24 Hours - Jamie Oliver
Date:	09/09/09 (16 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Extremely helpful, clear, descriptive and inspiring.

Disadvantages: Not long enough!

Whether or not you like Jamie Oliver, i think it would be difficult not to find at least one recipie that you like. A lot of people instantly hated this because they dislike Jamie, but if you read this with an open mind and just look at it as another cook book, you'll be pleasantly suprised. He makes cooking good food extremely accessible and appealing, having looked through this i felt inspired to cook. The thing i like about Jamie, is how down to earth he is and everything he makes is based on simplicity, in my opinion simplicity speaks volumes. He's not at all patronising which is somewhat a rarity for a chef. He doesn't tell you how you should cook your food, for example that you should eat your meat rare because thats how it 'should' be eaten, he knows that it's down to personal choice and there is no right or wrong way. He uses simple ingredients to make good food. You don't have to be loaded either which makes a nice change, as the key ingredients he lists as store cupboard essentials can all be picked up cheaply. There is a very good variety of dishes in this book, all of which are realistic - as in they aren't expensive and generally easy to make. For example he takes mince, as it's fairly inexpensive and then shows you a LOT of different things you can do with it, ideas that are all that bit different. His step by step methods are very clear, with several photographs accompanying each, to show you exactly what you should be doing, i found this extremely helpful. All the recipies i've made out of this book so far have turned out exactly how they should have, he really does make it very simple. He's inventive with his use of basic and simple ingredients to make an end result that really is something special - and impresses. He shows different ways you could serve some of the dishes, giving them that fresh appeal as its something new and shows how by simply changing a couple of things, it can become an entirely different dish. Whatever walk of life you come from, there will be something appealing in here, he uses ingredients in some of his recipies that you wouldn't dream of, but they work so well. This book gets a definite yes from me, it's excellent value and very well worth it. You'll keep going back to it again and again.

Summary: This book has been invaluable to me. Highly reccomended