"nigellalawson" news and stories

I first discovered Nigella Lawson when her show, Nigella Bites, aired during the late night hour on Style, sometime in the early months of 2002. I instantly fell in love with her approach to food, as well as the gorgeousness with which the show was filmed. I also made a point of getting my hands on a copy of the accompanying book, also called, Nigella Bites, as soon as I could.

I have to admit that I don't cook from this book all that often, although when I have the recipes have always fairly easy and very reliable. However, I love to sit on the floor in front of my bookcase with it and flip through. Her descriptions of the dishes that come before the actual recipe are akin to reading some of the best fiction out there, and the pictures are so very drool-worthy. If you don't want to invest in this book, I recommend checking it out of the library and bringing it home, just to page through it. A warning though: it is best to read this book when your kitchen is fairly empty, otherwise you may want to leap up and start preparing whatever dish you happen to be reading about at that moment.

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A while back I wrote about how I have most all Nigella Lawson's cookbooks, but that I rarely cook from them (save the one recipe I posted). I always thought that the reason I didn't use more of her recipes had something to do with laziness on my part, but apparently her recipes have been deemed more difficult to follow than some of the male chefs out there. Who knew there was something else I could blame it on!

In light of this study, England's Daily Mail columnist Quentin Letts tried out several of Nigella's recipes for a dinner party recently and shared his hits and misses with his readers. It's an interesting read and a good warning to stay away from the Instant Chocolate Mousse recipe in her newest cookbook.

I have every one of Nigella Lawson's cookbooks, but I hardly ever actually cook out of them. They have beautiful pictures and the narratives she writes prior to each recipe are always really fun to read, but something always prevents me from actually making the recipes. However, for every rule there is also an exception. I make "her" cold Soba Noodles with Sesame Seeds all the time (obviously Nigella didn't actually invent this dish, but she gives nice measurements for the accompanying sauce).

The recipe is in Forever Summer (on page 48 to be exact) and that page in my book is splattered and marked due to repeated use. I should probably just write down the measurements for the dressing on a notecard and leave the book on the shelf, but time after time I turn to it just to ensure that I'm using the correct proportions. This is an especially great party or potluck dish, because it's a little different from your standard pasta salad. People always think it was much more complicated than it actually was. Oh, and the leftovers are out of this world good. Because I like you guys, the recipe is after the jump.

Photo by Marisa McClellan

We have heard that formal dining rooms are back in vogue on the restaurant scene this year, which means that the combination restaurant dining room/kitchens, where everyone had a clear view of their food from start to finish, will gradually be phased out. Patrons are now more interested in eating the food and appreciating the subtleties of a well-prepared meal than they are in watching it be prepared. With the massive number of cooking shows on TV, can you blame them? Everywhere you turn, you can see great pictures of food and videos of how its made, but the restaurant is where you can taste every delicious looking item that you wouldn't ordinarily get at home.

The UK Guardian is saying that the "Nigella Effect" is responsible for this change, as the sultry chef's recommendation is enough to make people try anything. She sold the public on 250,000 tins of goose fat over Christmas, so the end of open-air kitchens was easy by comparison. But although she may have helped to speed up the trend, it is far more widespread than Britain already - and like it or not, it seems as though this trend could be here to stay.

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Talking of egg cups, good ol' Nigella has added one to her range of kitchen ware. It costs just £4.50 and incorporates a plate for soldiers too! Available in two colours - Duck Egg Blue (ho ho) and Cream.

On her website she writes "Sometimes things just seem right: I wanted an egg cup with a quiet organic design as simple as an egg’s. A small, plain cup sits in an ovoid saucer, with space for a small mound of salt and a few buttered fingers. I feel it’s important to be made happy at the start of the day, and this does it for me."

Also new to the range are a Hug Mug (£14.50) and a cake stand (£15). In a similar vein to the egg cup the hug mug it incorporates a saucer for holding biscuits, cake or bread. The cake stand is not going to be available until May though.