How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food

How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food
by Nigella Lawson

How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food
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Book Summary Information

Author: Nigella Lawson
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2002-08-22
ISBN: 0471257508
Number of pages: 496
Publisher: Wiley
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Book Reviews of How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food

Book Review: A must-have for every home cook
Summary: 4 Stars

In this different and easy to read cookbook Nigella introduces readers to a vast range of recipes: from basic roast chicken to weekend lunch desserts. What struck me (in a good way) was the fluency of the book. One might easily get cast away and read the book in a weekend. All the recipes and tips'n'tricks tell a story of enjoyable home cooking. Nigella's food philosophy is really convincing and extremely down-to-earth. After reading 'How to eat', it seems rather logicall to cook a solo dinner (not just heat up premade dishes, but prepare a tasty meal) just trying to impress yourself.
The book is about how cooking and eating can be fun and interesting and not a burden. Don't cook if you don't feel like it. And when you are ready, do everything without haste.
It really is a must-have book. Not only because it's full of recipes that do not require extra tremendous efforts. But because it's a good evening read with a nice cup of tea.

Summary of How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food

"Rather than telling you how to cook, she encourages you to take pleasure in feeding yourself and others . . .the premise is solid."-The New York Times

"I am not a chef. . . . My qualification is as an eater. I cook what I want to eat."-Nigella Lawson

How to Eat captures Nigella Lawson's bold kitchen credo and entirely personal approach to the often daunting task of preparing great meals. Replacing the austere perfection of glossy photos with down-to-earth kitchen sense, How to Eat offers up 350 simple, delectable recipes, destined to instill confidence and creativity. It covers cooking basics (from preparing mayonnaise, soup stock, and pastry dough), conundrums (using leftovers, what to put in the freezer, low-fat menus), and cooking for every occasion (weekend lunches, in advance, eating alone or as a pair, or feeding kids), with practical anecdotes and cooking lore. A thoroughly livable approach to building skills and a repertoire of favorites, How to Eat is the best friend any lover of food can introduce to his or her kitchen.


"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

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