Customer Reviews

Real Fast Food

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was introduced to this book by a friend back in the mid-90s. Since then, it's become my food bible, and I've shared it with my family & have impressed many a friend who's popped in for a mid-week supper. And, like several of the other reviewers, my copy is like the Velveteen Rabbit: pages are stained, stick together, falling apart, and the more it becomes like this, the more loved it is. It is, quite simply, the best cookbook around. It's certainly the only book that we refer to by name: "what does Nigel suggest?" being a common refrain in our kitchen.

Why is this book so perfect?

Well, for one thing, it's fast and nutritious: we work long hours & don't have the time or energy to slave in the kitchen for 2 hours when we get home (I love Delia & Martha but that's the problem with their recipes). And as the alternative is a) eating out, b) pulling something out of the freezer, c) pasta (again), or d) hummus & ryvita, this book often proves to be our Monday-Thursday evening road-map. And even when it is pasta again, Nigel has the best suggestions for fast & interesting sauces/toppings.

Second: Nigel's philosophy of cooking is very similar to mine: I make things up based on what's in the fridge anyway. The thing I like about this book is that Nigel's been doing that for longer than me: he has more suggestions, and some really interesting ones. I'm sure he's made mistakes, but they aren't listed in the book, so I can learn from them without making them myself. Nice.

Third: Nigel's a foodie but not a snob. I love the fact that he tells you to eat the very best of things: chocolate with 75% cocoa solids, greek yoghurt etc, but he also includes chip butties. And which of us doesn't secretly want a chip butty occasionally?

Fourth: Nigel's realistic. His recipes are for 1-2 and he says that this is because it's how most of us live now. He's right. (Martha: again, take note: we're not all families with 3 kids looking to roast beef). Much easier to follow his portion amounts (tho' I've made his risotto for years & still think his amounts for 2 would feed a family of 5).

Finally: I have some of Nigel's other books, but frankly, I'm a little worried that he's following the Nigella-Jamie "Glamour Cookbook" trend with his most recent offerings. Yes, they're gorgeous, and yes, he needed to do something different. But their complexity is a little more intimidating (as is the time needed for preparation), and they don't just prop up on the kettle as easily when I need to follow a recipe while opening the post, answering the phone & making supper in 25 minutes.

`real fast food' is one of the English culinary writer, Nigel Slater's early books, which in many ways is much more friendly to American audiences than many of his later cookbooks, right down to the silly conceit of putting his title in all lower case instead of the way we were taught in fourth grade to capitalize titles of things!

Two of the more obvious Americanizations are the presence of Jamie Oliver's blurb on the cover that `Nigel is a genius' and the subtitle saying that the book contains `350 recipes ready to eat in 30 minutes'. This puts the book in almost direct competition to Rachael Ray's latest offering, `365:No Repeats' which was published after Slater's volume, so one may say that Rachael is cribbing from the Brits this time. One less obvious but very gratifying change is the fact that all of Slater's recipes in this book are done using Imperial measurements rather than metric measurements. That is, everything is in spoons, cups, ounces, and pounds rather than in grams, kilograms, and milliliters.

The very best thing about this book is that the qualities which made his other books so good, it was worth puzzling through all the metric units are still here in this `mass market' issue. Slater starts out on the right foot with me early in his introduction on ingredients when he gives me a corollary to Marold's Law of Fast Cooking in that he strongly recommends using fresh herbs for all `fast food' cooking because it takes too long for the virtues of dried herbs such as thyme to develop in quick cooking dishes. Fresh herbs are invariably more expensive than dried herbs.

I should warn you that this book does have more than a few dishes that should more properly be considered `simple' or `easy' rather than fast. This should not be surprising, as `simple' cooking has been Slater's ideal in all his books.

I confess to be pretty fond of Rachael Ray's approach to fast cooking in that she always genuinely aims for being done within 30 minutes, she uses few prepared ingredients and she uses lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. I believe Slater does Rachael one better by bringing his deep love and knowledge of his ingredients to us to understand and use, instead of following Miss Rachael's scripts without learning much beyond the particular recipe.

Rather than organize his recipes around courses or types of dishes, Slater promotes our understanding by organizing his book by ingredient and within ingredient, by method. For instance, like all great food writers, he has lots to say about what you can do with eggs. One of the most delightful things I found in this book is his take on making scrambled eggs, on which he devotes much more love and attention than he does to that most finicky dish, the omelet. This may be do to his French influence, as I almost fell out of my chair when I read Slater saying that the French always seem to manage to find a simple approach to food.
Since most of us see the Italians, or at least their British disciples such as Jamie Oliver, Rose Gray, and Ruth Rogers, as the great recipe simplifiers, it's unusual for those of us brought up on `Mastering the Art of French Cooking' to see French techniques as simple, but dust off your Elizabeth David and Richard Olney and you will find French simplicity aplenty.

Slater is one of those rare food writers who actually admits to not liking a particular kind of raw ingredient. In his case, it is the Brussels Sprout! I find this odd, because I was always especially fond of Brussels Sprouts, even as a child, and even in preference to some of its cabbage family relatives. It is simply beyond me how someone can rhapsodize about artichokes, and not like Brussels Sprouts. Well, Slater actually doesn't rhapsodize about artichokes, and in this book he gives us the best times and methods for dealing with the little sprouts, so I forgive him.

I don't believe Slater is a genius. I just believe that where Jamie Oliver is ebullient and something of a force of nature, Slater is articulate and insightful about what works in cooking and what goes together with what.

You should be warned that Slater trades good tasting food done simply with a fair number of concerns about the heavy use of both saturated fats and carbohydrates. The man simply loves bacon, butter, heavy cream, potatoes, and beans! And why not. A little bacon or anchovies, cream and parsley would make shoe leather taste good.

The bottom line is that you will learn a lot more about cooking technique and ingredients from Slater, even in this `quick cooking' book than you will from just about any other cookbook writer, including both Rachael Ray and Jamie Oliver. If you are already a Slater fan, this book offers a great reference to quick meals which follow his principles, when you don't have time to mine his deeper books, especially his most interesting and important book, `Appetite'. If you are unfamiliar with Slater, but you like good cooking, you can get no better introduction to his eloquence than in this volume.

Very highly recommended.

As someone who has now spent nearly a whole year at University, I am one of thousands in this country (and I suspect others) who has learned just why home-cooked food tastes wonderfully unique. Books like this would put a lot of college freshers out of misery if they were handed out along with advice leaflets at Fresher's Fairs - what's more, I believe they could stand a would-be chef in good stead right the way through life.

Nigel Slater is a masterchef beyond any conceivable doubt. He knows how to transform even the simplest of ingredients into the utterly sublime, and proves once and for all that it is possible to cook, for yourself or for others, on a shoestring budget (which is all too true for University students!). The writing is so engrossing that you will be imagining what the food is like before you even attempt the recipes - and when you do, you are almost 100% certain to be satisfied.

I'm not much of a cook. Even so, I find this book indispensable. I cannot think of any cookery writer, unless it be Delia Smith, who has written such a useful, straightforward and satisfying book as this. Highly recommended!

I just got this at a used book store last week and have been flipping through and getting some ideas. We tried the grilled eggplant with chick pea puree last night, delicious! It took a little more than 30 minutes but simple to make-easy enough for a relatively quick weeknight dinner and good and impressive enough (with other side dishes) to serve for a dinner party. My favorite kind of recipe. If our first time out with the cookbook produced such a good result, I will be returning to if often. Lots of good, versatile ideas with room for experimentation.

I am not a great cook - I have a gourmet quality wife who loves to cook for relaxation - but for 8 months we were long-distance commuters. I lived on a very small houseboat - meaning everything had to be carried in, water was at a premium, and there was a limit to the amount of electric stuff I could use at the same time. With a 2-burner hot plate and a copy of Real Fast Food as my primary reference, I was able to cook a fair number of the recipes to produce a most impressive meal with minimal trouble.

It is by no means a health-food diet - if you don't like butter and olive oil, this book is not for you. But if you like to make a good showing from time to time with food that tastes great and is not that expensive to prepare - reach for this book first.

Nigel Slater is a star - everything is quick and everything tastes great. All his books are 5*!! No expertise required - my husband has been known to manage any of these recipes although he takes longer than 30mins!

Within a week of buying this book, it became the kitchen bible in our busy London kitchen. Slater's love of fine food doesn't stop him from giving us the ultimate bacon sandwich alongside recipes for dolcelatte gnocchi (my favourite). None of the recipes take more than 30 minutes to prepare and cook, and all of them taste utterly marvellous.

So, buy this book, make yourself a plate of grilled croissants with Roquefort and walnuts (chapter 1) and a cup of real coffee, and inspire yourself with Slater's witty prose and interesting suggestions for pitta bread.

I got this book hoping for some new ideas for quick yet well-rounded recipes for my busy family. I was disappointed to find that about half the book is sandwiches or mixtures of leftovers to stir into rice or pasta! Thank you, I had already figured those things out myself. I am sure that a search for the words "crusty bread" would turn up almost every recipe. In fact, I don't think most of the foods, although charmingly described as noted by other reviewers, really qualify as recipes.

About the only interesting hack was the addition of bulgur wheat to the list of rice and pasta as bases for your leftovers. Further annoyances included the author's reliance on the UK equivalent of the outdated USDA Food Pyramid as a guide to macronutrient proportions, which resulted in dinner recommendations containing no protein; and a deliberate avoidance of meat dishes, apparently because meat is "unhealthy".

This book might be useful for the person who is just leaving home for the first time and has never had to rely on his/her own cooking. I mean, who really needs a RECIPE for toasted cheese?

Although most of the recipes in this book are quick to make, don't count on having most of the ingredients at your house! Slater uses many things that I don't normally have in my cupboard (maybe American vs British shopping?). As a matter of fact, there have been a few ingredients I can't find even in the store(kipper filet? potted shrimp?). Some of the recipes are excellent (chili-chicken pita, broiled salmon w/basil butter), while some aren't so great (avacado w/ warm bacon vinaigrette...ugh). Still very nice for expanding my cooking horizons!

This book is an interesting read, written in a chatty style, with many good ideas for quick cooking. That said, many of the dishes will not appeal to the American palate, including "Smoked Haddock with Cream," "Kidneys Cooked with Sherry," and "Eggs with Meat Juices" (seriously). I doubt that most Americans will end up making most of the recipes. However, Slater does have an interesting take on keeping the pantry stocked, which I think should pique the imagination of home cooks; and he is always an entertaining writer. I highly recommend his memoir, "Toast."