How to Eat The Pleasures & Principles of Good Food

"Although it's possible to love eating without being able to cook, I don't believe you can ever really cook unless you love eating." Nigella Lawson

Earthy, witty, and totally passionate about eating, British food phenomenon Nigella Lawson has taken North American kitchens by storm with the huge success of her television show, Nigella Bites.

How to Eat is the book that started it all —her signature, all-purpose cookbook that became a blockbuster bestseller on its publication in England and has now sold hundreds of thousands of copies on both sides of the Atlantic.

How to Eat is Nigella at her best and most complete. Here is her total (and totally irresistible) approach to food, in which she lays bare her secrets for finding pleasure in simple things that we cook and eat every day: no fussy instructions or overachieving recipes, just a joyous celebration of home-cooked dishes that are easy to make and serve — and deliciously satisfying to eat.

Best of all, Nigella knows 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. That's why How to Eat has chapters for different needs and situations, including meals for one and two people, low-fat cooking, weekend dining, and cooking for babies and small children.

With her easy, conversational style, Nigella makes you feel as if she's right there in the kitchen with you as she shares 350 mouthwatering recipes that range from the truly sublime Tarragon French Roast Chicken to a totally seductive Chocolate Raspberry Pudding Cake. She eases you through every preparation detail — from coordinating the oven settings and timing for dishes that must be served together to suggesting the perfect wine for the meal 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.

With advance preparation tips and great leftover ideas, Nigella shows 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.

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 wonderful 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." Amanda Hesser, The New York Times

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

"A chatty, sometimes cheeky, celebration of home-cooked meals." USA Today

"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

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

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.

"[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."

–Amanda Hesser, The New York Times

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

–Los Angeles Times

"A chatty, sometimes cheeky, celebration of home-cooked meals."

–USA Today

"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

NIGELLA LAWSON is the host of Nigella Bites and Nigella Feasts, which are both broadcast on the Food Network. A former food columnist for the New York Times, she is the author of four other cookbooks: Feast, Forever Summer, How to Be a Domestic Goddess, and Nigella Bites.

Preface.

Charts and Measures.

Basics, Etc.

Cooking in Advance.

One and Two.

Fast Food.

Weekend Lunch.

Dinner.

Low Fat.

Feeding Babies and Small Children.

Glossary.

Sources.

Bibliography.

Acknowledgments.

Index.