How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking [Import] [Hardcover]

Nigella Lawson (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 388 pages
• Publisher: Chatto & Windus (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0701168889
• ISBN-13: 978-0701168889
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 1.1 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (133 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,401,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nigella Lawson is the British bestselling author of Nigella Express: Good Food Fast, Feast: Food to Celebrate Life, Forever Summer, Nigella Bites, How to Be a Domestic Goddess, and How to Eat, which have sold in excess of 5 million copies worldwide. Her 2005 book Feast: Food to Celebrate Life inspired 'Nigella Feasts,' which debuted on Food Network in fall 2006. The Domestic Goddess is back in her second Food Network series, 'Nigella Express,' launched in fall 2007 in conjunction with the release of Nigella Express. American audiences also know Nigella as host of 'Forever Summer with Nigella,' her popular cooking/lifestyle series that aired on style, and 'Nigella Bites,' which aired on E! Entertainment Television and style. In July 2003, Nigella launched Nigella Lawson's Living Kitchen, a range of kitchen items designed in collaboration with Sebastian Conran, to widespread acclaim in the U.S.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

151 of 156 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars American bakers beware!, September 27, 2005

By 

An honest cook (Virginia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking (Paperback)

Boy, is this book confusing. As many have stated in reviews of the hardback version, the ingredients amounts are off, sometimes waaaay off. I was hoping these errors would have been corrected in this new 2005 paperback version -- but no.

Just out of curiosity after receiving the book, I went to Nigella's official website and looked at three of the recipes from this book reprinted on the site. When you click on the American equivalent the ingredient amounts shown there differ -- sometimes dramatically enough to guarantee disaster -- from the printed book (U.S. version) in all three recipes. For instance, the Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes: in the printed version before me it calls for 1/2 cup sugar; on the website: 3/4 cup of sugar (no wonder a previous reviewer complained they weren't sweet enough). In the book: 1 cup "self-rising cake flour" (an item that American bakers don't even use -- and this item crops up everywhere in the book!); on the website: 1 cup all-purpose flour + 1 tsp baking powder + 1/4 tsp baking soda. For the icing the book calls for 1/3 cup + 1 TB heavy cream; the website: 1/2 cup.

But the scariest discrepancy is in the recipe for Coconut Macaroons. The book: 1/3 cup sugar; website: 1/2 cup. Book: 2 TB ground almonds; website: 1/3 cup. But here's the kicker: Book: 1 cup + 2 TB shredded coconut; website: 3 1/3 cups! That's not even close! Needless to say I now have very little confidence in these recipes.

So. Three stars because I like Nigella and her writing, and because the book is very handsome. But I'm returning my copy and ordering the UK version -- I'd rather deal with metric conversions than these appalling mistakes.

85 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much better than How To Eat, November 7, 2001

By 

LBB (Manila, Philippines) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking (Hardcover)

While the author's first book, How To Eat, gave an overview of the entire cooking process with some desserts thrown in, How to be a Domestic Goddess focuses entirely on baking. Being a domestic goddess she says, (and I paraphrase) is returning to a basic love for cooking minus the hassles of daily life.

Lawson's trademarks are evident here with her conversational style and easy to follow recipes - (you must try the dense (fallen)chocolate cake: it is superb). Aside from the usual baking sections, there is a chapter devoted to recipes that children will have fun helping out with as well as a holidays section.

This book is hardback and printed on beautiful glossy paper. The photos are well-lighted and look so real that they jump off the page and will make you rush to your kitchen. This is definitely a better and more focused book than How To Eat (but then again, I prefer to bake!).

80 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love the Lovely Book, January 13, 2002

By 

Abra Carroll Nardo (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking (Hardcover)

I heard about Nigella from English relatives last summer. Then I caught her show on the Style Network. She's a great cook, beautiful, and she truly does flirt all the way through. It's all done with a bit of kitsch, so it's OK in my book. I ordered my copy of this book from Amazon.co.uk, so the version I have has English measurements and ingredients, so be warned that that's the version I'm reviewing.

Nigella is first and foremost a brilliant writer. Even if you aren't planning on cooking anything at all from this book, it's enjoyable to have, as the prose is a pleasure to read, and the photography is beautiful.

Here in the US, we have this view of English cookery as being bland, boring, and not worth our time. Nigella will quickly put those views to rest. She is, like me, an avid cookbook junky, and she always cites her sources, so you're getting recipes filtered through Nigella from sources all over the place.

I have this book on my coffee table, and my husband and I are both always leafing through it. The Nigella recipes I've tried have always worked out, and I've been able to choose with confidence, since each recipe is described in painstaking detail. You know what to expect. And you often have a photo to check out, too.

Most recipes are intended to be easier than the resulting dish would have eaters believe. So, less work, more praise. Hell, maybe she is overcompensating for something else in her cooking, but more power to her. We're the better for it. She does it knowingly with beautiful irony, especially in the title.

Love Nigella. She's going to take on the world.