Customer Reviews

Jamie's Kitchen

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I got the cookbook as a Christmas present I was a little skeptical. Okay maybe alot skeptical. The recipes looked a little too vague; not enough precise measurements; "add a glass of wine" (big glass? small glass? 'what's up with that?')Quite frankly, it made me nervous. Cookbooks aren't supposed to be like that.

But I gave the recipes a whirl and lo and behold, they turned out! The recipes were different yet familar. A nice twist on things (sorry, no pun intended). Jamie creates recipes with layers of flavor and texture; recipes with color and style. And what is more, they were relatively simple to make. I've received rave reviews from friends and family.

But the real surprise and joy was that Jamie's approximate portions and measurements allowed me to become more of my own chef, so to speak. I guess I always felt compelled to stick to the rigidity of a receipe. What I discovered is that I was more or less forced to I play with the amounts and I did not feel that I was somehow making a mistake when doing so. It was okay to toy with this ingredient or that. This gave me confidence to explore variations. In short, it made cooking even more fun.

This is how I think the great chefs really cook: they have a game plan but they have intuition, gut instinct. When you watch the great chefs on TV rarely do you see them haul out a measuring spoon or a cup. They go by eye, by experience and by gut. And I think this is what Jamie Oliver's book has done for the reader.

Buy it, experiment with it, have fun with it.

Jamie Oliver is quite rightly famous for liking his food unpretentious, fresh and delicious. he is quite quirky and funny as well, and this good humour shines through his recipes.

There are all sorts of delicious things in here, including a fabulous basic bread recipe that can be manipulated into all sorts of good things, but the beauty of the recipes are that they can all be whipped up in fairly short periods of time if friends and family drop in. There are the usual quick and easies, as well as a number of far more spectacular dishes.

If you have a reasonaly well stocked pantry and this cook book, who knows what miracles can happen in the kitchen. This is not just a book for people who love cooking, it is also for people who like the eating as well!

I love watching Jamie's shows so was really excited to have his recipes at my fingertips, AND (as a new cook) learn some basic culinary skills. However, after flipping through the book I have dog-eared fewer recipes that I expected. Not that the recipes don't sound delicious (they do, of course) but I can't get some of the key ingredients (due to living in Asia) and/or the recipes aren't as healthy as I expected (too buttery/fatty/creamy). Many of them I'd have to label as special occasion meals rather than something I can just whip up and not feel guilty. On the upside: this book has helpful summaries (which photos) of cooking techniques such as how to bone a chicken, correctly stirfy, etc. Good for a beginner like me. Also explains the differences b/w methods such as stewing, braising, etc. Again, all these terms were familiar to me but not quite straight. Photos are amazing; directions easy to follow. So far I made steamed eggplant with an Asian style dressing and it was surprisingly delicious; and the marinated veggies were lovely too. Things like "celeriac and truffle oil soup" are beyond my reach (literally) but I can see myself altering many of the recipes as best I can to suit my diet and location, which I'm sure Jamie wouldn't object to. If you love the show and don't have any rigid diet restrictions,it's a good book with plenty of variety. In the end, I'm sure I'll end up bumping this rating up to a 4 but having only scanned the book and made a couple things, 3 for now.

Jamie's Kitchen is a big, beautiful, vibrant cookbook with some very interesting recipes. I have not yet seen any of his other cookbooks, but I found the approach this one took rather refreshing. Unless absolutely necessary, measurements in this one are more general (i.e. handful of breadcrumbs), which gives the chef a little more freedom. He also adds a couple of suggestions at the end of each recipe where the chef can tweak it a bit and get something a bit different. He includes some step by step instructions for things, such as making pasta. The recipes in this book are, for the most part, an undertaking, simply not something you are going to whip together for your family of four after a long day at work or with the kids. The recipes here are more weekend entertaining--but they are lovely and imaginative.

I have over 300 cookbooks and this is a welcome addition. I love his simplicity and refusal to give in to specific measurements. I think the recipes are simple and easy to use. I recommend this book to a beginner as well as an experienced chef.

This book is not only beautiful, it really has great recipes. I've cooked the roast duck, and the pot roasted shoulder of lamb, and the baked chocolate pudding -- and all of them turned out brilliantly, and looked just like the pictures which I can't say for very many of the cookbooks I own. I like the way the recipes are divided by technique -- that's why it works well as a cooking course. But it also just has great recipes so it's good even for people who really know how to cook. .

I am a huge fan of Jamie Oliver's television shows, books, and "easy peasy" approach to cooking/life.
Naturally, then, I was thrilled to read at Amazon that Jamie published a cookbook to accompany "Jamie's Kitchen" (a televised and laudable effort to train young and unemployed Londoners in both the culinary arts and restaurant business).
Unfortunately, I was quite unexpectedly disappointed.
The failure, I think, lies with an expectation set by the cookbook's sub-title..."A Cooking Course for Everyone".
Jamie tells us up front that this isn't meant to be an overly technical culinary textbook, but I wondered if we couldn't have been enriched by a cooking term or technique more complex than "to boil".
At the other extreme, Jamie's recipes lack the inspired (refreshing and yet warmly hearty) attributes we've come to love, and seemed rather inaccessible to the sort of reader who may need or want a "cooking course".
Although I enjoyed the kitchen tools list and invitation to use fresh herbs, these are nothing new; overall, I was struck by the irony that this cookbook, having its genesis in Jamie's openhearted effort to help others, seems to lack just that...heart.

I was excited to get this cook book in the mail because I enjoy J.Oliver's sinmple approach to cooking. Unfortunetly, I found the meals he prepares impractical and too delicate for a family meal. His tips were helpful on food preparation but the rest was just pretty on paper.

It is difficult to evaluate this book without opinions' being colored by seeing Jamie Oliver's experiences in nurturing fifteen (15) young needful men and women to become professional cooks and, in the process, succeeding in creating London's most highly sought dining venue. I confess that this background makes it almost impossible for me to give the book less than five (5) stars, although I will cite some weaknesses in a generally very worthy book.
'jamie's kitchen' is primarily a celebrity chef cookbook where the celebrity is a practicing chef like Mario Batali and Bobby Flay, however there is no distinct connection between the recipes in the book and Jamie's restaurant '15'. Rather, I've seen many dishes done on his Food Network show 'Oliver's Twist' appearing in this book. There is also no systematic connection between the contents of the book and the Food Network special of the same name; however, there are some recipes and demonstrations of techniques, which appear in both. Note that unlike Jamie's various TV presentations, all units are in Imperial units (pounds and ounces and Fahrenheit and so on) however one does have to translate teaspoon from the term dessert spoon.
Overlaid on the typical celebrity chef content is a outline of a cooking course covering common cooking methods such as salads, 'cooking without heat', poaching, boiling, steaming, en papillote, stewing, braising, frying (pan and deep), roasting (pot and pan), broiling, grilling, and baking (bread and pastry). As an outline and presentation of exemplars for major culinary methods, this book is very good; however, it should not be accepted as a complete cooking textbook. (I would not rule out a talented instructor's using this book as a supplementary text, but it is still not in the same league as excellent texts by Madeline Kamen, Anne Willen, or the Culinary Institute of America). Another clue that this is CANNOT be taken as a textbook is Jamie's aversion to exact measurements. A text could never be as imprecise. That said, I give high marks to the photographic demonstrations of several basic cooking techniques such as filleting a flatfish, making a basic bread dough, chopping and slicing, pasta making, and blanching tomatoes.
Thus, the primary value of the book lies with the quality of the recipes and the usefulness of the recipes to the buyer. I believe the overall quality of the recipes is very high, and, personally, I found the choice of recipes to be very, very good. There is the expected influence of Italian cuisine in many of the recipes; however, there are also distinctly oriental overtones in many of the recipes, especially in the salads. I was especially delighted to find a relatively simple recipe for Chinese steamed pork dumplings. The recipe for this dish presented by a Martha Stewart guest took three pages (I am not so naïve to believe that the results of the simple version will have all the virtues of the more truly ethnic recipe, but the point is that the simpler essay on a classic preparation will enhance your appreciation of the more complicated, more ethnicly accurate presentation.) The section on bread is basically an introduction to Italian breadmaking and an excellent introduction to breadmaking in general. The basic dough is simpler, for example, than many common white bread recipes with the added virtue of not requiring a stand mixer to obtain a decent result.
My take on celebrity chef cookbooks is that their primary object is to enhance one's enjoyment of cooking by breathing life into old recipes and presenting an interesting range of new options to the reader. A perfect example of this object for me was the description of poaching beef fillets in red wine. Up to now, cooking expensive beef in a water-based medium seemed to border on sinful. Jamie makes it all make sense at the cost of a decent bottle of red wine. This is also the perfect illustration of the fact that celebrity chef cookbooks are not about cheap or fast or easy. Jamie give the game away on 'easy' when he demonstrates a technique which he confesses took him several days to master.
Jamie's talent reminds me of a description of Robin Williams. Translated from comedy to the culinary, I find Tyler Florence (for example) to be a very talented chef, but Jamie Oliver is a force of nature. His enthusiasm for the skillful preparation of good ingredients into masterful food is communicated as effectively from the printed page as it is from the TV screen. This communication is assisted by the excellent photography framed in the oversize dimensions of the volume.
While the book is less than perfect, few of the blemishes warrant a pass on this volume if you are looking for the rewards that such celebrity chef cookbooks have to offer. A major consideration in buying this book is it's cost. Luckily, I am certain that the book will be available at a discount from practically any outlet. The concern about the cost is inflated by the fact that the size of the book hides the fact that more than a few large pages are taken up by photographs of people, mostly Jamie, in artsy poses against gritty backdrops. These enhance the coffee table character of the book. A little game one may try is to find the picture of Jamie which contains a picture of Jamie and Jools. Very droll. The positive aspect of the photography has already been noted above. Not every culinary book with full color photos of food does as well as this one in using them to complement the words in the recipes. This is a must for Jamie Oliver fans.

I love cookbooks with recipes that are easily duplicated at home, and this one is excellent. The photos make it all more tantalizing. Jamie Oliver produces yet another excellent book for beginners and advance chefs alike. Pick it up, you won't be disappointed!