"Cooking is not about just joining the dots...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. And in cooking...you must please yourself to please others." And so Nigella Lawson begins How to Eat. Already a huge success in Britain, How to Eat is a joyous celebration of home-cooked food, simply prepared and presented. She demonstrates how everyone can explore and enjoy the world of food every day — whether it's fitting cooking into a busy schedule or improvising with whatever ingredients are on hand.

Her easy, conversational style makes you feel as if she's right there in the kitchen with you as she shares 350 delicious yet simple recipes that range from Tarragon French Roast Chicken to Chocolate Raspberry Pudding Cake. This is food to be made and enjoyed in real life, not just in the picture-perfect pages of a magazine. And that's why all of the menus are set up so that everything is ready to serve at the same time. Nigella Lawson orchetstrates every single food preparation detail for you — from coordinating the oven settings and preparation timing for every dish to suggesting the perfect wine to accompany the meal served at your next dinner party. All of the recipes are accessible and, with short lists of ingredients, easy to adjust to suit different tastes and occasions.

Best of all, Nigella Lawson understands that the kitchen isn't always an oasis of tranquility. Her world is the real world: where children are waiting to be fed, where unexpected guests arrive on the doorstep at dinnertime, where you run out of that key ingredient just after the stores close. From practical tips on advance preparation to great leftover ideas, she shows you how to get the most from the pantry and the refrigerator as you move beyond recipes to develop your own sense of what food is about. Chapters are organized around lifestyle, and include meals for one and two people, low-fat cooking, weekend dining, and cooking for babies and small children.

Whether used in the kitchen or read like a good novel, this book will spark a joyful rediscovery of eating and really enjoying food — and its preparation — as a part of your everyday life.

"[Nigella] brings you into her life and tells you how she thinks about food, how meals come together in her head...and how she cooks for family and friends....A breakthrough...with hundreds of appealing and accessible recipes." The New York Times

"Nigella Lawson serves up irony and sensuality with her comforting recipes...the Queen of Come-On Cooking." Los Angeles Times

"Nigella Lawson is, whisks down, Britain's funniest and sexiest food writer, a raconteur who is delicious whether detailing every step on the way towards a heavenly roast chicken and root vegetable couscous or explaining why 'cooking is not just about joining the dots'." Richard Story, Vogue magazine

"Her prose is as nourishing as her recipes...a book that should please mere readers as well as serious cooks and happy omnivores." Salman Rushdie, Observer Review

Includes bibliographical references (p. 463-464) and index.