Nigella Feasts

[jgm]

I saw the first installment of her show on Food TV yesterday, and I was impressed, as far as personalities and Food Network shows go. I've never made any of her recipes, so I can't comment on the level of cooking, although she seemed to use good ingredients.

She had me hooked when she went into her pantry and explained that others may bring back art museum souvenirs when traveling abroad, but she brings back food. And I loved it when she licked melted chocolate from a spatula and with a half-guilty, half-defensive expression, admonished the audience, "Don't say you wouldn't."

And her advance warning about the 'little noises' (or whatever term she used) that the ketchup bottle would make as she squirted ketchup into the chili, had me rooting for her. So many cooking shows are so sanitized, I found it all quite refreshing. She'll no doubt appeal to the young male audience; but she also appeals to this middle-aged female. And I think my husband's gonna love her!

She's not destined to heavyweight cooking fame, e.g. Julia, Sara, and Mario - but she does a really entertaining cooking show.

Other opinions?

[Tess]

I missed that installment. Darn Food TV doesn't seem to rerun them much, either.

Two of her other series used to run on Style Network, and I loved them. I have a couple of her cookbooks and have also cooked some things from her column when the NYTimes used to feature it. However I find her writing and shows more useful as a source of ideas about ingredients and combinations to check out rather than whole recipes.

[Betts]

I love the breezy British writing style and the " take the time to get good ingredients and then put them together with a minimum of fuss" philosophy.

Count me as a fan.

[woodburner]

Nigella could do anything,

and I would watch.

woodburner

[kitwilliams]

I'm a big fan. Just love her. Witty, well-spoken (understatement) and just a pleasure to listen to.

I have her "Domestic Goddess" baking book. The gin and tonic jelly is really fun and delicious! Just be very, very careful when you get up from the dinner table -- whoa!!!!

I remember seeing a show about her. She's not at all embarrassed by the fact that, from beginning to end of filming a cooking series, she puts on about ten pounds (I can't imagine the weight I would put on!). She loves to cook, she loves to eat. No worries. Why should she? As jgm said, men love her (my boyfriend does!), but so does this middle-aged female! What's not to like? Gracious, gifted and gorgeous!

And I was so glad to see, on yesterday's show, that she still closes the show (as she has done in past series') by going to the fridge late at night!

So glad to have you on the air again, Nigella!

[Jean Blanchard]

I've never seen her shows before so I didn't know what to expect. I would think that she just might be everything a man would love in a woman. She's very comfortable with who she is and she should be. She's beautiful, sexy and she loves to eat the food she cooks. What man wouldn't love that?

That said, I have no clue as to how much I'm going to enjoy her cooking skills yet.

[racheld]

We LOVE her, and have everything she's ever recorded on tape, I think. Plus all her books, two of which I lugged home in a suitcase so Daughter could have the absolute Brit version. I also swiped two little paper spills of "Brown Sauce" from a conveniently-abandoned room service tray in the hall of our hotel, just because she lavished the stuff onto a big slice of (omelet?) and ate it with voluptuous pleasure, with her head tilted back to take a BIG bite as it dripped.

We've been looking forward to this season, as our rinky-dink DISH network charges lots extra for her channel.

BUT. Daughter told me as we were cooking this a.m. that a chili dish she made yesterday had a strange topping. Her Goddessness has perhaps one toetip changing to clay---she put cinnamon in CORNBREAD!

[bigbear]

I have always been a fan. Eating leftover chili out of the fridge makes me like her even more.

[tejon]

Huge fan here. She truly takes pleasure in food and cooking and that shines through in everything she does on screen, which is refreshing. The recipes that I've tried have been uniformly delicious, which is an added bonus.

I want to be Nigella when I grow up.

[iharrison]

Huge fan here. She truly takes pleasure in food and cooking and that shines through in everything she does on screen, which is refreshing. The recipes that I've tried have been uniformly delicious, which is an added bonus.

I want to be Nigella when I grow up.

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I want to be WITH Nigella when I grow up.

[Jasmine]

I won't be able to watch it until later-- TFE is PVRing it for me.

I got to meet her on Friday when she did the book signing in Toronto -- absolutely lovely and very kind and patient.

I know she has her detractors because of her looks and the way her shows are shot. I think it's pretty obvious that she's well aware of the foodporn aspect of her shows and she's pretty tongue-in-cheek about it.

I love the fact that she's really bright and it shows in her writing, but not in an "I'm smarter than you" kind of way...

j

[JasonZ]

I watched her for 2 years while living in the UK ... and can understand many of the comments made by others here ... Yes, her accent and use of the English language is mesmerizing (she studied Medieval and Modern Languages from Oxford), although I think Tamasin Day-Lewis is more eloquent (she is the Saturday food column in the Daily Telegraph, the sister of Daniel Day-Lewis and daughter of the former Poet Laureate of England -- she spontaneously quotes verse from memory, as she cooks -- and has a degree in English Literature from Oxford, is a cookbook author, TV producer and director [bBC; ITV]).

Learn a bit about Nigella's background and she's even more amazing ... her first husband (who died of throat cancer) suggested she do a cookbook, which was followed by her first TV series. She became Deputy Literary Editory of the Sunday Times, and now contributes to the Food section of that paper. She does not have formal cooking credentials and her husband's cookbook suggestion ("How to Eat") was the first thing she had ever done professionally in cooking.

And, yes, Nigella has a way with food that is absolutely sensuous (sometimes, watching her eat should be "R" rated!!) ... and absolutely homey and informal, in the midnight snack visits ... She is far more approachable than Giarda DeLaurentis (who DOES have academic culinary training) and Rachel Ray doesn't even get out of the starting blocks in these comparisons.

I'm afraid that, other than Ming Tsai (who has a degree from Yale as well as a culinary degree from the Cordon Bleu), no American chef can hold a candle in terms of eloquence and viewability to Nigella or Tamasin ...

Edited October 3, 2006 by JasonZ (log)

[Jean Blanchard]

Thanks for that background info. It'll make watching her a little more interesting. I think that while Giada has the low cut outfits thing going on, Nigella is far more sensual. All I know is, most of the men don't really seem to care about how well she cooks. Don't think I'm going to learn much from her though.

[duckduck]

I was glad to see that they kept the tradition of the end segment of her eating out of the fridge in the dark. Great way to end a show. Love the ease of her dishes too. Not too fussy.

(And Tejon, why on earth would you want to do that? Grow up? Nuh uh. )

[Fai Jackson]

I have always been a fan. Eating leftover chili out of the fridge makes me like her even more.

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and she dipped it in sour cream. Then she took the leftover trifle to bed with her. Lucky Mr Scassi. (or some name like that)

[tug]

I have always been a fan. Eating leftover chili out of the fridge makes me like her even more.

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I've been a fan of Nigella's for years. I fell in love with her when I saw slice off a piece of chocolate cake during a late night raid of her fridge. The "slice" was the size of her head. No fork, no plate, she took a huge bite.

Its been love from that moment on

[Ohba]

I love the breezy British writing style and the " take the time to get good ingredients and then put them together with a minimum of fuss" philosophy.

Count me as a fan.

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We British are indeed breezy. Oh yes.

[JanMcBaker]

I have always been a fan. Eating leftover chili out of the fridge makes me like her even more.

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and she dipped it in sour cream. Then she took the leftover trifle to bed with her. Lucky Mr Scassi. (or some name like that)

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I don't think it was the trifle-- the bowl wasn't clear. It looked more like the bowl of chili. I was really surprised that she didn't take the trifle with her! That sure looked good, but I would have preferred a layer of cake, layer of custard, layer of cherries, repeat..... top with mounds of whipped cream! Yum.....

[Lesley C]

She's not destined to heavyweight cooking fame, e.g. Julia, Sara, and Mario - but she does a really entertaining cooking show.

I disagree. I think she's already there.

And she's a heck of a lot easier on the eyes.

[jgm]

... And you have to love a woman who plops 3 pounds of hamburger into a stew pot and refers to it as a "big mother"... Her attitude toward food, herself, and her cooking show is so refreshing.

I keep wondering, though: If my bathtub and bathroom were as nice as hers, would it also be sexy if I turned my tub into a giant wine and beer chiller, like she did? Somehow I don't think so. The last time I tried to do sultry, the way she does, I was offered an allergy pill. So I'll live the sexy, sultry life vicariously through her. Every Sunday!

[Gifted Gourmet]

Nigella is quite a woman .. but her life has certainly had some startling ups and downs ... Nigella Lawson: A sweet and sour life

Cooking and eating has always been a refuge for her during times of stress and she says one reason women like her is because she is not thin.  Now 40, with children Cosima, seven, and four-year-old Bruno, she has put on 6lb since filming for her latest TV series began but is "too much of a slattern" to do anything about it. It is no secret that her home is not a testament of tidiness to a domestic goddess: "I go round in trainers and horrible clothes without make-up and without brushing my hair."

I think that the reason so many love her unabashedly: she is real

[Peter Green]

The last comment sums it up. Nigella is very "real", and doesn't pretend to be otherwise. She's had a hard time of it the last few years, losing her husband, but she still keeps on going.

I've enjoyed her very much on the BBC Food Channel, and have several of her books. Her hints and tips are extremely functional, and she adds a gentle sense of the pleasant as she explains it.

The only time she's caught me out was when she recommended collecting the dregs from her guests' wine glasses after a dinner party, and freezing these in ice cube trays to use later for cooking. That was a little too practical......

[Gifted Gourmet]

The only time she's caught me out was when she recommended collecting the dregs from her guests' wine glasses after a dinner party, and freezing these in ice cube trays to use later for cooking.  That was a little too practical......

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Real ain't always so pretty ...

[emsny]

The only time she's caught me out was when she recommended collecting the dregs from her guests' wine glasses after a dinner party, and freezing these in ice cube trays to use later for cooking.  That was a little too practical......

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And too fastidious by half. Why wouldn't one just drink them?

[Tess]

I got to meet her on Friday when she did the book signing in Toronto -- absolutely lovely and very kind and patient.

She was like that when I saw her too.

I was really impressed because the ad for one signing actually said she encouraged people to bring in books they had bought previously to be signed if they wanted. Authors don't have to do that and she has to sign an awful lot of books as it is. And, of course, she was personalizing them any way you wanted.

I would totally go to another signing again just to see her.