Appetite

Rating:
Summary: This book makes you want to get out of bed...
Review: and get in the kitchen and cook. I've bought about 5 dozen cookbooks this year--I keep them by the bed and read through them at night before they migrate to the dining room bookshelves--and this is by far the most inspiring one of the lot. Slater writes about food passionately--with desire, not just enthusiasm--as well as commonsensically. His biases may not be yours, but he's upfront about them. And the food is so inviting--both the text and the superb pictures help you hear the spatter of fat in the pan and feel the acid steam of a lime and chile rich broth in your nose. He invokes all your senses and all you can do is salivate, and take out the pans, and cook. Cook what? Slater's food here is home cooking; it is not cheffy or gussied up. Almost all of it is tremendously inviting and big flavored, and easy to make for any reasonably seasoned cook. Absolute beginner cooks might worry about his seemingly imprecise recipes, but the way to learn to cook is to cook often, and I think this book makes cooking so alluring that they'll get better just from getting more practice. If you believe that cooking is chemistry, this is not your book. If you see eating and cooking and reading as sources of pleasure, loving gifts, and a chance to make a big mess in the kitchen, this cookbook is for you. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely, Positively Refreshing
Review: Blunt and straight to the point insight about real cooking. This book is great. However, I only recommend this book if you like reading cookbooks and you are an advanced cook or aspire to be an advanced cook. His keen insight and practical, blunt advice help to hammer home what cooking really is... and should be.
Nigel gives you a firm lesson in the fundamentals in just one or two sentences throughout the book. It's a cookbook that is mostly filled with great advice - kind of like a chefs journal on steriods. I highly recommend this book- it's the kind of book you can read twice and still learn more on the second reading. Bottom line = his opinions are really good advice and this book is like a casual conversation- except that he is the one doing all the talking.

Rating:
Summary: I adore this book
Review: I am a foodie, and I love cookbooks. This is one of the best cookbooks I have ever owned. [...] I completely enjoy reading Nigel Slater's prose. He talks about food in a way that makes you want to eat! His goal is to develop enough confidence in his readers that they can easily find their way around a kitchen without being slavishly bound to a book. If you are obsessed with exact measurements, you will not like this book. However, if you want to become a more confident cook, then you must read this.

The first half od the book is written in prose with no recipes. However, there are enough suggestions that I found myself putting the book down to run in and whip up this-and-that just from reading the suggestions he has. There are lists of what goes with what and what is in season (although it is based on the seasons in the UK). Just reading this first half of the book (I read it as I would a novel) will make you a better cook.

In the recipe sections, many recipes begin with a vague recipe (you know - a chicken, a lemon, a head of garlic, a little butter), then there are several sections after that add variations. Each well worth the space it fills. In many ways, this is a great cookbook for me (if I may gender stereotype for a minute). Although I am a woman, my husband and father have both enjoyed this cookbooks. Unlike most cookbooks, it is more concerned with tasty food and skills in the kitchen, rather than trying to help you to get exactly the result that the author got when s/he made it.

Nigel is British, so you will find Britishisms here. Bangers are sausages, rashers are bacon. However, measurements don't matter too much since he uses them so infrequently anyway. One lemon in the UK is about the same as one lemon in the US! Also, there are several typically British foods, like British pudding here. But contrary to what most Americans think, British food can be amazing. Their food has not been as hijacked by convenience foods as ours has - so the food is real --- REAL GOOD!

One last point... the photography is fabulous! I read that Nigel insists on doing all the cooking for the photo shoots and won't allow food stylists to spruce it all up for the camera... so you see the tasty crunchy bits at the bottom of the pan... very appetizing.

I'm really hoping that Nigel will influence other cookbook writers to use this more laid-back style of writing. It's oh so much more fun!

Rating:
Summary: The curl up and read cookbook
Review: If you are the kind of person who likes nothing more than curling up on a rainy day with a good cookbook and dreams of delectable aromas wafting through your house, then this is the book for you. Spending half the day reading and bookmarking and then half the day cooking up a storm to feast on in the evening is my idea of a perfect rainy day in and many of my rainy days have been spent with 'Appetite' and Nigel's friendly tone and comforting cooking. He makes no apologies for his full fat/carb filled comfort food...thank goodness! A little goes a long way. My kitchen confidence gets a good boost with this book too, as Slater deconstructs recipes and informs the reader of approachable alternatives. A informal foodie must-have.

Rating:
Summary: The curl up and read cookbook
Review: If you are the kind of person who likes nothing more than curling up on a rainy day with a good cookbook and dreams of delectable aromas wafting through your house, then this is the book for you. Spending half the day reading and bookmarking and then half the day cooking up a storm to feast on in the evening is my idea of a perfect rainy day in and many of my rainy days have been spent with 'Appetite' and Nigel's friendly tone and comforting cooking. He makes no apologies for his full fat/carb filled comfort food...thank goodness! A little goes a long way. My kitchen confidence gets a good boost with this book too, as Slater deconstructs recipes and informs the reader of approachable alternatives. A informal foodie must-have.

Rating:
Summary: Nigel Tells Us All About His Pudding.
Review: If you were ever dying to know what kind of candy bar Nigel eats while waiting for the bus in England, you'll be fascinated to know that he eats Kitkats- but he still thinks they "taste better when you're sitting down". Anyway, Nigel in Bombay has a different approach, Nigel in Bangkok, once again- he's a softie for anything flavored with lemongrass. So, this book is 1) all about Nigel and his idiosyncracies (none of which were useful or endearing to the reader) 2) Nigel's displaced sense of taste,and 3) Nigel not trying hard enough to make effortless cooking seem easy.
There are only a small handful of recipes in the book. The first half of the book is useless to anyone who has ever eaten anywhere but Denny's or Burger King. Nigel seems to think he's brilliant and innovative for suggesting we place mozzerella cheese and sliced tomatoes side by side on a plate, then goes on to call Parma ham and figs served side by side "a cliche".
His recipes are confusing, too, because the format goes something like my example below:

RECIPE FOR SHEPHERD'S PIE

leeks
carrots
potatoes
lamb

Then, Nigel will go on to give some measurements, and other very vague guidlines for cooking that go something like this:

-a ground beef, or
-enough heavy cream to fill a basket

I don't know about you but I'm more interested in making good food. Nigel uses this book as an ego fount. Obviously he's experienced enough to do all this stuff by feeling his way through it, but how can you teach someone to slap bread slices on a plate and then how to make a fruit tart with the left side of your brain in the same book? Well, you can't. Nigel can't!

Rating:
Summary: Improve your confidence in the kitchen
Review: Nigel's book is not like other cookery books, but if you read it and accept it's premise that most cooking is instinctive, you will get great results from this book. Don't expect it to be prescriptive down to the last pinch of salt - this is not Nigel's style. But you will discover your own way of doing things, and develop the confidence to go on and create your own dishes. I cannot recommend this book highly enough - it's fab!

Rating:
Summary: Great philosophy of cooking
Review: This is the cookbook that I've been searching for! Nigel explains his philosophy of cooking and urges the readers to develop their food instincts and confidence by experimenting a bit, not slavishly following recipes. The amounts aren't exact--the risotto recipe I tried listed "a big piece of parmesan" or something like that. New cooks may be intimidated by not being told exactly what to do, but this style encourages us to trust and develop our own tastes. I enjoyed reading this cookbook straight through and have tried a couple of the recipes. The pictures are beautiful and I've always found it handy to have a visual guide for what the finished product might look like. However, if you're looking for an all-purpose cookbook with a wide variety of recipes, keep looking.