246 of 254 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A cookbook that doesn't belong just in the kitchen, June 9, 2001
I have a special shelf for cookbooks in my living room...right next to the kitchen, as should be. For some reason, "How to eat" by Nigella Lawson, has been lying around the floor in my bedroom, or on the sofa in the living room, or wherever else apart from the kitchen, for the last couple of years since I bought it. What I'm trying to say is that this book is not just a simple cookbook, but more a description of the pleasure of good eating, & of preparing good food for yourself & for people you love.
On the other hand, the actual recipes (at least the ones I've tried so far, which are quite a few) seem to work, even from the first time you try them. I mention this because I've heard & read all sorts of comments about whether N.Lawson's recipes work or not. Maybe this is because Nigella Lawson has become a celebrity in England--imagine: she writes well, cooks well, & to top all that, she's beautiful too! How can you beat that? This is why 2 camps seem to have emerged--a "pro-Nigella" camp & an "anti-Nigella" camp!! This is all ridiculous, of course. The point is that Nigella Lawson has written, at least in my opinion, one of the best cookbooks of recent years. Down to earth, with good & long-winded explanations, written in a direct, friendly style, with such love for good food that even reading the book makes you want to rush to the kitchen & start creating a feast. "How to eat" is about comfort-eating at its best, & for me at least, it serves as comfort-reading too...
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69 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
this book is my bible, November 11, 2004
I bought this book in the spring of 2000 and I have literally never put it down. Its spine is broken, its pages are dirty, and it is falling apart. It can take a lot love, strain, abuse and argument.
That said, when was the last time you had a really great teacher? This is probably the best and the most important cookbook that has been published in the last decade (the last big one, for me, was Sheila Lukins and Julie Rosso's New Basics). Nigella inspired me. Obviously, she knows how to make and serve superb food. But she can also write, in a voice that is straightforward, simple, and direct; and she makes you want to cook.
Her credo is directed toward those of us who eat well and also struggle in the kitchen at home: we are a generation of cooks who have been cowed in the kitched by "too much cheffiness," the endemic fussiness of restaurant food; and the subsequent intimidation we experience from professional chefs and food celebrities (clearly she wrote this before she became a superstar). Instead of trying to replicate restaurant food, she argues, we should consider the distinction between how we eat at home and how we eat when we go out. This book directs itself toward how we eat at home. And her answer is simple: make what you want to make, in the time that you're allowed to do it. Therefore, this book is organized by time and convenience, rather than by region or category. You get whole (albeit limited) menus, rather than exhaustive descriptions of one regional category or another.
I have probably cooked every recipe in this book and (like one of the previous reviewers) I have some of Nigella's recipes permanently under my belt--alas, in more ways than one. The parsley salad with red onion, capers, and lemon juice is a permanent fixture in my life now; so is her red wine onion gravy (for sausages and mash, even though I disobiently use chicken or turkey instead of pork). I make that @!%$ recipe for chickpea and pasta soup more than I can bear to admit, even to myself, because it's inexpensive and it works. Nigella even instigated enough courage in my soul to actually purchase and cook oxtails, and she was right: they are less trouble than you would expect, delicious (and cheap). I also completely understand her obsession with rhubarb . . . and linguine with clams . . . and ham cooked in cider . . . and creme caramel made with coconut creme instead of milk . . . and the pleasure of laying out nice things you bought at the store when you can't deal with imprisoning yourself in the kitchen.
In the meantime, you have her stories to keep you company--her family's celebrations and tragedies, the tribulations of raising small children, and the most beautiful drag queen in all of Florence.
What more could you ask? This book acts as a guide to the hidden culinary adventures possible in your own home. Familiar energizing ideas suddenly offer up new ones, and old neglected ones naggingly call your name until you get off your ass, go out and try something new
Four years later, I am not by any means finished with this book. It waits, open, spattered and torn, by the other cookbooks that I love to flip through but rarely use. It now forms part of the fabric of my life. Forget the hot shots and the style network . . . she an oracle of our modern age, where everything is available but we have no idea what to do with it.
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73 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
buy it now!!!!, June 5, 2002
Okay. So I had heard of Nigella Lawson and had been meaning to buy a cookbook or two of hers, especially Domestic Goddess. I finally got around to it, and decided to get this one as well, because I thought, frankly , that the price was right (it's cheaper on UK site, if you don't mind making the conversions from grams to ounces - not brain surgery)and it might have a couple of good recipes.
Well, I was surprised at how much I really love this cookbook. It is like a cooking bible. I have over 100 cookbooks, so I do not say this in jest. I love the way that the book is organized and sectioned off, from dishes for solo or duo diners, to dishes that are lowfat and food that can be cooked with children. It is really cleverly designed. The recipes range from elaborate dishes, to the roast asparagus that I prepared the day that I got the book. She writes in a very chatty style which is like having a mom or sister or friend in the kitchen with you, sharing her secrets. This cookbook is awesome. You have to get it!!!
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