Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson is the British culinary sensation. She knows how to make her readers fall in love (or at least in lust) with her.Readers will come away from her books with a sense of what she thinks is worth loving. Nigella is the kind of woman who appeals to both guys and gals. She's got that earth-mama-British-crumpet thing down pat. She makes it look all so sensuously effortless - be it chef, TV star, best-selling author or sex symbol. Nigella makes us believe we mere mortals can make our cake and eat it too.

Nigella’s Tips:

• "Cook in advance and, if the worse comes to the worst, you can ditch it. No one but you will know that it tasted disgusting, or failed to set, or curdled or whatever."
• On the proper English trifle: "When I say proper I mean proper: lots of sponge, lots of jam, lots of custard and lots of cream. This is not a timid construction ... you don't want to end up with a trifle so upmarket it's inappropriately, posturingly elegant. A degree of vulgarity is requisite."
• "Too many people cook only when they're giving a dinner party. And it's very hard to go from zero to a hundred miles an hour. How can you learn to feel at ease around food, relaxed about cooking, if every time you go into the kitchen it's to cook at competition level?"

Sample Recipes:

• Buttermilk Roast Chicken
• Creamy Gorgonzola Prawn Pasta
• Creme Brule for Cheats

Nigella Lawson's column in the New York Times "Dining In" section appears every other week. How to Eat - won the British Author of the Year Award.  She appears regularly on the Today show and she lives in London with her two children.

• Nigella’s Website
• More Sample Recipes
• Nigella On TV
• Nigella Living Products

 Nigella Express: 130 Recipes for Good Food, Fast
When time is precious, you can’t spend hours shopping or cooking, so you need to make life easier by being prepared. This is food you can make as you hit the kitchen running, with vital tips on how to keep your store cupboard stocked, and your fridge and freezer stacked. It’s minimum stress for maximum enjoyment.This is a new generation of fast food–never basic, never dull, always do-able, quick and delicious. The Domestic Goddess is back and this time it’s instant.

How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food
Don't expect any concessions to health recommendations in the recipes here--Lawson makes liberal and unapologetic use of egg yolks, cream, and butter. There are plenty of recipes, but the best parts of How to Eat are the well-crafted tidbits of wisdom - "Too many people cook only when they're giving a dinner party. And it's very hard to go from zero to a hundred miles an hour. How can you learn to feel at ease around food, relaxed about cooking, if every time you go into the kitchen it's to cook at competition level?"

Feast: Food to Celebrate Life
Impressively, every recipe begins with a personal anecdote giving the impression Nigella didn't just throw it in the book, but is experienced with the recipe and has used it with success. Take her twist on the decadent Chocolate Guinness Cake for example: "I wanted to make a cream cheese frosting to echo the pale head that sits on top of a glass of stout. It's unconventional to add cream but it makes it frothier and lighter which I regard as aesthetically and gastronomically desirable." Who can argue? The cake is to die for. There is a nice blend of occasions including the obvious (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and Easter), a few culturally specific ones (Rosh Hashanah, Georgian Feast, and Venetian Feast), feasts for kids, for vegetarians, and an elegant cocktail party. Each chapter begins with an overview of that particular "Feast."