- Hardcover: 496 pages
- Publisher: Wiley; American ed edition (Aug 27 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0471257508
- ISBN-13: 978-0471257509
- Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 19.7 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.2 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #167,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
"Cooking is not about just joining the dots, following one recipe slavishly and then moving on to the next," says British food writer Nigella Lawson. "It's about developing an understanding of food, a sense of assurance in the kitchen, about the simple desire to make yourself something to eat." Lawson is not a chef, but "an eater." She writes as if she's conversing with you while beating eggs or mincing garlic in your kitchen. She explains how to make the basics, such as roast chicken, soup stock, various sauces, cake, and ice cream. She teaches you to cook more esoteric dishes, such as grouse, white truffles (mushrooms, not chocolate), and "ham in Coca-Cola." She gives advice for entertaining over the holidays, quick cooking ("the real way to make life easier for yourself: cooking in advance"), cooking for yourself ("you don't have to belong to the drearily narcissistic learn-to-love-yourself school of thought to grasp that it might be a good thing to consider yourself worth cooking for"), and weekend lunches for six to eight people. Don't expect any concessions to health recommendations in the recipes here--Lawson makes liberal and unapologetic use of egg yolks, cream, and butter. There are plenty of recipes, but the best parts of How to Eat are the well-crafted tidbits of wisdom, such as the following:
- "Cook in advance and, if the worse comes to the worst, you can ditch it. No one but you will know that it tasted disgusting, or failed to set, or curdled or whatever."
- On the proper English trifle: "When I say proper I mean proper: lots of sponge, lots of jam, lots of custard and lots of cream. This is not a timid construction ... you don't want to end up with a trifle so upmarket it's inappropriately, posturingly elegant. A degree of vulgarity is requisite."
- "Too many people cook only when they're giving a dinner party. And it's very hard to go from zero to a hundred miles an hour. How can you learn to feel at ease around food, relaxed about cooking, if every time you go into the kitchen it's to cook at competition level?"
--Joan Price --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Review
"Her prose is as nourishing as her recipes — it should please mere readers, serious cooks and happy omnivores."
—Salman Rushdie
"I love Nigella Lawson's writing and I love her recipes."
—Delia Smith
"One of the best and most influential of British food writers — bound to become a staple cookbook for a whole generation."
—Ruth Rogers, The River Cafe Cook Book
"Cerebral and scintillating advice — peppered with wit."
—Sunday Times
"A gloriously sensual wander through the possibilities of food. The recipes read more like seduction than instruction."
—Independent --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
—Salman Rushdie
"I love Nigella Lawson's writing and I love her recipes."
—Delia Smith
"One of the best and most influential of British food writers — bound to become a staple cookbook for a whole generation."
—Ruth Rogers, The River Cafe Cook Book
"Cerebral and scintillating advice — peppered with wit."
—Sunday Times
"A gloriously sensual wander through the possibilities of food. The recipes read more like seduction than instruction."
—Independent --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
The Great Culinary Renaissance we have heard so much about has done many things-given us extra virgin olive oil, better restaurants, and gastroporn-but it hasn't taught us how to cook. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The Great Culinary Renaissance we have heard so much about has done many things-given us extra virgin olive oil, better restaurants, and gastroporn-but it hasn't taught us how to cook. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
No pictures!!!!!!,
By Lewis Cruise "Dondaven" (Quebec, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food (Hardcover)
I like Nigella Lawson and love her TV show but if you need pictures to see the results of the recipes, please choose another cookbook of hers because this one has none! Her writting style his fun, but this book is more like a novel including recipes.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pure Pleasure,
By - Kasia S. (New York City) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food (Hardcover)
Before i cooked anything from this cookbook, i was fascinated that it reads more like a lifestyle manual than a typical cookbook. Reading it i could almost hear Nigella saying the words in my head.The recipies are fun and well thought of, her Macaronie and Cheese is fabulous, and soo easy! I enjoy laying around the house, sipping tea and reading between the recipies, because that girl has a talent for words. I love this book, she did a great job, as usual.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intelligent advice, great food. Nigella is cool!,
By A Customer
This review is from: How to Eat : The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food (Paperback)
Please let me say first off that I adore Nigella. She is like the cool sister you never had. She offers up recipes for just about anything you would ever want to cook, as well as her opinions in a certain way that makes me look to her a bit like one would a mentor. It's because she knows a lot about food, and has a great deal of life experience, from travelling and working as a restaurant reviewer, to share. For example, she's firm in her belief that a salad should be green or red. Choose. Either make it with lettuces or make a beautiful tomato salad -- better yet, set the ripe tomatoes in the center of the table with a knife, and let your guest have at it. It's something I'd never thought about before, and now that I have, I agree.I consult this book for inspiration, comfort, advice, and sometimes just to fantasize about a proper British Sunday meal or some other menu. The book is interesting and fun to read, and does inspire confidence. My latest success related to this book came after consulting it for my four-year-old's birthday party. The crowning jewel was a brilliant-green Jurassic cake laden with miniature plastic toy dinosaurs and a palm tree -- it was a huge hit. (Cheese biscuit "W"s too.) I appreciate how Nigella stresses that her recipes and suggestions are meant to serve as guidelines, not rules written in stone. In fact, some of the recipes I would change and have, tweaking and improving upon them for my tastes. It's more about the approach to food and eating. Nigella is smart, smart, smart, and truly a breath of fresh air.
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