Book Review

Title: Nigella Christmas

Author: Nigella Lawson

Publisher: Knopf Canada

Pages: 268

Released: November 11^th 2008

ISBN: 978-0-307-39774-4

Reviewed By: The British Chef (Ontario Correspondent)

Hugely popular kitchen diva Nigella Lawson appears to be the newest version of Martha Stewart for audiences to indulge in culinary offerings. Lawson is a powerhouse as effective as any Jamie Oliver, Wolfgang Puck or Gordon Ramsey for pairing cookbooks with a whole swat team of merchandising and TV programming. Lawson is another one of the newest celebrity chefs to prove herself worthy of the title “brand.” Put Nigella on a cover and chances are people will want to know more about its contents. So, simply titled Nigella Christmas is a trendy walk down fashionable culinary Christmas with a new spin on old favourites and an abundance of adjectives meant to get you into the festive season mood.

Firstly, the book is beautiful and rather substantial in size. The pictures are beautiful and welcoming with Nigella in some photos, but mostly the food and festivities of Christmas takes center stage. At times you get a nice display of step by step photos on “Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Lasagne” and “Roast Stuffed Pumpkin with Gingery Tomato Sauce.”

However, I was disappointed by the type of recipes as they were usually very basic, very trendy and at times, didn’t even sound appetizing. Titles were all prefaced with an over the top surplus of adjectives such as “Georgeously Golden Fruit Cake,” “Spruced Up Vanilla Cake” and “Effortless Home Cured Pork.” These recipe titles were far too descriptive in the wrong way. And if I didn’t know before, I most certainly would know after reading Nigella Christmas that pomegranate is the new popular flavour to pair with everything.

I can usually find great things to say about cookbooks, and some fabulous ones do exist, but other then the extended efforts on the eye-catching appeal of Nigella Christmas, I found this cookbook to be as hollow as an overcooked Christmas turkey. All in all, this was not my favourite book and it was an unfortunate let down.

The recipe that put me over the top was “Chocolate Chip Chili.”