Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook [Import] [Hardcover]

JAMIE OLIVER (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 447 pages
• Publisher: TED SMART (1990)
• ISBN-10: 1856130002
• ISBN-13: 978-1856130004
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,313,321 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jamie Oliver started cooking at his parents' pub, the Cricketers, in Clavering, Essex, at the age of eight, and has gone on to work with some of the world's top chefs. He founded Fifteen restaurant in London and the associated charity, Fifteen Foundation, which continues to train disadvantaged young people to become chefs. There are now three other Fifteen restaurants in the world: Cornwall, Amsterdam and Melbourne. Jamie has also launched a chain of high street restaurants in the UK called Jamie's Italian. In 2005 Jamie led a campaign to improve the quality of school dinners in the UK and, through the Feed Me Better movement, caused the government to substantially change its policy towards school food. Jamie continues to write for publications in the UK and around the world, including his own magazine, Jamie Magazine. He lives in London and Essex with his wife, Jools, and their daughters, Poppy, Daisy and Petal.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

89 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprised Vegetarian, February 12, 2009

By 

T. Osborne (Toronto, On) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook (Hardcover)

I bought this book as a last minute Christmas/Birthday book for my boyfriend. I saw it in the store, and knew we'd enjoyed the Bruchetta we'd made from his Italian book, so I figured why not - it was a "good enough" gift.

Initially the idea behind the purchase was that maybe my boyfriend, who works on contract and is thus frequently by himself and/or always eating out, might enjoy some simple meals at home and maybe pick up some new techniques/ideas.

However, as of yet, this cookbook has not left my house, and invariably every weekend we find ourselves headed out to the market to buy local ingredients to try something new.

First off, he's French, and obviously eats meat - and he even remarked how much he's learned from the quick guides at the beginning of each section on choosing meats and preparing them.

But what really potentially "shocked" me the most, were the vegetable dishes we've tried in this book. I have been a vegetarian for 10+ years, and I have a wealth of cooking implements and cookbooks. I expected, you know, "ok" dishes, and yet every time I have been blown away by what we've cooked - every recipe thus far has become a favourite - and must repeat.

The Tomato Salad, for instance, good god. To think I've only eaten vegetables all this time and never tasted a tomato like that. The Honeycomb Canneloni - blew my mind. I honestly snuck back into the kitchen later to eat the leftovers.

This book turned out not to be a last minute Christmas gift, but potentially the most used gift I have ever given. We've had such a blast cooking with this every weekend, and the recipes always deliver and are creatable by somewhat novices :).

Absolutely ecstatic I bought this :).

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jamie describes his favorite recipes, April 29, 2008

By 

LinAnne "Lin22" (Puget Sound) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook (Hardcover)

I just love to watch Jamie on his BBC program, and this is the first of Jamie's books that I've purchased. (I'd now like to order one more of his famous books).

Anyhow, what I simply love about this particular cookbook are all of Jamie's wonderful HINTS and GOOD INFORMATION that Jamie lays out for the reader at the very beginning of each Chapter and also within each sub-category.

Because I've seen Jamie on TV so many times, I am very familiar with his (rather cute) lingo, such as "dollop" and "knob",for example. His lingo does not turn me off,as some have stated, but rather, I like his way of speaking because it makes Jamie seem more REAL to me! .....And because Jamie projects such an approachable personality, the readers (and TV viewers) are, of course, instantly drawn to him and his cooking style.

YES, there is a photo of every single recipe, and YES, that is a good thing!....As another commentator stated, "there is alot to be said for photos of every recipe".

Some of the recipes would be hard for a beginner to duplicate , or even to comprehend. For example, "The Squash Sage and Amaretti Risotto" would be a difficult recipe for a beginner cook to visualize. Yes, the photos are tantilizing, however, some of the combinations may be hard to phathom (from a novice cook's perspective). Another example is the "Squid with Black Pudding stuffing and sticky tomato sauce" (hum???), or the "Perfectly Cooked Crispy Duck with Spiced Plum Chutney". Would a beginner "get it" or be turned off? (Just something for beginners to keep in mind).

However, if a reader of this book has seen Jamie actually cook on TV and has seen how his chosen flavors can actually "work", then MOST of the recipes in this book are very doable,FUN,and exciting! These are some of my favorites:

~~Summertime Tagliarini , p. 68
~~The best Onion Gratin, p. 333
~~Must-Try Red Cabbage, p. 358
~~Overnight SLOW Roasted Pork, p. 174
~~Rib Roast, p. 154
~~White Fish, p. 222
~~Black Cod, p. 226
~~Lemon Drizzle Cake, p.383
~~Easy Shortbread, p. 412
~~Schnitzels, p. 182
~~Baked Ham Shanks, p.162

160 of 188 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Introduction to Cooking. Buy It NOW!, October 18, 2007

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook (Hardcover)

`Cook with Jamie, My Guide to Making You a Better Cook' by the British culinary wunderkind, Jamie Oliver, is a long drink of cool water for fans of Oliver, and a joy to read for any dedicated foodie, who enjoys reading cookbooks. It is a special treat to read two manuals on `how to cook' in the same month from such distinguished practitioners such as Oliver and Alice Waters.
At 447 pages, plus fabric bookmark sewn into the spine, this is obviously a serious book, especially since it lacks some of the graphical razzle dazzle and cutie pictures which have cluttered some of Oliver's books in the past. As Jamie himself says, this almost seems like it should be his first book instead of his seventh. Oliver even goes so far as to hope he has created `a timeless, modern-day classic' manual on how to cook.
The book has much which would qualify it for consideration as a `timeless classic'. Unfortunately, the bar for `timeless culinary classics' is pretty high, set, among others, by Oliver's compatriots, Elizabeth David, Jane Grigson, Claudia Roden, and Nigel Slater. So, while I don't believe it achieves those Olympian goals, it is still a very, very good cookbook, especially for younger readers and students.
The thing which sets Oliver apart from practically everyone else who chants the `fresh, seasonal, organic, local' mantra is that Oliver is committed to these principals in his heart and soul. He is not just repeating a party line. And, that commitment jumps off of almost every page in this book. This and his overall `joie de vivre' are simply infectious, and they bring his cookbooks alive with enthusiasm. Like many of his other books, especially `jamie's Italy' and `jamie's kitchen', one is almost surprised at how many original culinary insights one encounters on his pages. Given the pedagogical objectives of this book, they are more common (and certainly more highly expected) in this book than in his others.
My five favorite sections in this book are:
The Salads chapter. I would line this up with the comparable chapter from salad specialist, Alice Waters in `The Art of Simple Food', and I believe Jamie would match her point for point. Oliver and Waters both arrive at roughly the same place, but Oliver has the skill of getting points across just a bit more dramatically than Miss Alice.
The Fresh Egg Pasta section. Oliver here does things which are missing from even the best pasta instructions from Marcella Hazan. Hazan may demonstrate the basic technique more effectively, but Oliver gives excellent pictorial instructions on making six (6) classic fresh pasta shapes.
The Selection of Dried Pasta Recipes. This, of course, is Oliver's real forte. With his apprenticeships with Gennaro Contaldo and London's River Café, I believe his selection of pasta dishes is second to none in tastiness and originality.
The Diagrams on Cuts of Meat. Almost all other diagrams of this sort you see are more complicated, and the diagram of the chicken cuts is a bit misleading, but the simplicity of the hoofed animal parts is remarkably illuminating, especially in the way the loins are depicted.
The Vegetables Chapter. Oliver rhapsodizes about vegetables with as much or more virtuosity he applies to salad greens. Sir Jamie cleverly concentrates his attentions on those vegetables which are most familiar to UK, Irish, Aussie, and American tastes, with several different recipes for potatoes; carrots; peas; leeks and onions; broccoli and cauliflower; cabbage and zucchini.
I must also give honorable mention to the sections on custards and meringues in the chapter on desserts. The chapters on pasta, vegetables, and salads alone are worth the price of this book. Everything else is pure gravy.
For those of us who have not seen Sir Jamie since his `Jamie's Kitchen' TV series, the introduction brings us up to date on his `Fifteen' project where he subsidizes the culinary educations for deserving teens who have had something of a tough time of it in the world. There are now five `Fifteen' restaurant / apprentice shops, with three in the UK, one in Amsterdam, and one in Australia, and all the profits from this book will go to support that endeavor.
While I love the book, overall, it is not quite the great tutorial on how to cook that Jamie may have been aiming for. It has great insights, fine sections on choosing equipment, food safety, and herbs and spices, but it simply does not cover everything you would expect in a textbook. The treatment of pastry, breads, shellfish, soups and stocks and egg dishes is too light. There is very little on serious knife skills, and there is no bibliography. If I were to recommend a single culinary manual to an earnest, inexperienced amateur, I would suggest Waters' `The Art of Simple Food' unless the person had a serious Jones for Italian cuisine or they were in high school or middle school.
But that does not mean this is not a dandy book. More than any of Jamie's earlier efforts, this one really deserves your attention if you love food, and especially if you teach younger people about food. Aside from its snappy insights, the rich photographs are more likely to appeal to an inexperienced cook. The only thing which may be lost on a newbie is the great originality of so many of Oliver's dishes, many of which were developed in the `Fifteen' kitchens. For this virtue, the book stands as a great cookbook in itself, even if you ignored the pedagogical material.
My final word on Jamie's book is that unlike most writers, Jamie can evoke in the reader with his enthusiasm those special flavors and sensations so important to working with food. He does not have the literary elegance or encyclopedic range of Elizabeth David, but he certainly gives Nigel Slater and Nigella Lawson a run for their money as a pretender to David's throne.