How To Eat: The Pleasures And Principles Of Good Food

Nigella Lawson

Editions

Review

In the introduction to this volume, Nigella Lawson explains why it is called ‘How To Eat’, rather than ‘How To Cook’: she believes that it is impossible to be a good cook if you don’t enjoy eating.  Perhaps this is true; it might also be the case that when Britain’s best selling cookery writer, Delia Smith, is bringing out a book called ‘How To Cook’ to accompany her new TV series, within weeks of the publication of your own book, it might be helpful if they didn’t both have the same title.

This is a highly readable book, and in a breezy, informal way, the author talks about shopping for food, preparing it, cooking it, serving it and savouring it.  I haven’t found them so far, but I’m sure there are tips on doing the washing-up, too.  Ms Lawson’s enthusiasm for food is very evident, and, whilst it’s hard not to get the impression that she is an exceptionally good cook, she takes the reader into her confidence about the things which she finds tricky to accomplish in the kitchen, without being patronising.  Her style is certainly accomplished and extremely engaging.  This is the kind of cookery book that you can enjoy reading, with the added bonus that it’s packed with great recipes.

Indeed, there is a wealth of practical advice from the best way to separate eggs (I’m not sure I’d be all that keen on my friends’ chocolate mousse, if I knew they’d let the egg whites drip through their splayed fingers, keeping the yolk in the palm of the hand) to planning a traditional Sunday lunch.  It’s an immensely enjoyable read, and if you wanted a single-volume cookery book from which to learn the basics, you wouldn’t go far wrong with this.  I do feel, however, that when the author glibly suggests it is “curiously relaxing” to be preparing a meal while “talking and drinking unhurriedly with friends”, she reveals herself to be in a different league from the rest of us.  If my guests arrive whilst I am still in the throes of preparation, I tend to forget to put the potatoes on, and if I have a drink, I tend to relax completely - and forget the guests. - review by Dan Fenton