I was disappointed.

The braised little gems...did anyone have that work out well? Is that something you would ever make again? It was a tasteless & useless side dish.
The honey semi-freddo was a total mess and even if it had come out perfect it tasted awful. The moroccan rice & chicken was tasteless and created another mess that took me 3 pans to cook because the yogurt immediately sticks & burns, regardless of temperature. The roast chicken w/garlic--seemingly foolproof--never came together from a consistency or taste standpoint. The chocolate Pavlova recipe with raspberries was another failed attempt...

My husband and I live in Chicago, a town with fabulous restaurants, and we consider ourselves above average cooks and foodies. I really wanted to like this book, but at the end of the day, I would only make one thing over again, the Hasselback potatoes. Unfortunately those were only good because of technique, not because of her recipe.

Am I missing something? Should I try a different book of hers?

To put this review into perspective for you it is written by someone that has been cooking for 25 years, and concentrating on Italian cooking for the last 10 years. My favorite cookbook is "The Professional Chef" from the Culinary Institute of America. I would definitely consider myself a foodie.

This book is part travel journal and part cookbook. This book doesn't concentrate on one county or one type of cuisine. This book has more Italian recipes than any other. But it also includes Asian, Indian, Hawaiian, Moroccan and Middle Eastern offerings as well.

Before each recipe Nigella tells you a little about the inspiration for the recipe, where she first ate it and for which meal she would serve the recipe. Nigella is clearly a lover of food, and that comes through in her writing.

The directions for her recipes are very complete. The ingredients that she uses are available in most major metropolitan mega marts, or through the gourmet section of Amazon. The recipe that I find the most versatile in this book is the one for Lemon Rice with mint, mustard seed and turmeric that is much more flavorful than regular rice, but not too assertive. Many of the recipes have less than 10 ingredients and come together in under 30 minutes. The Chicken, Almond and Parsley salad is quick, and very good. I know it sounds crazy but the Watermelon, Feta and Black Olive salad is also a winner.

In most cases Nigella uses more oil and cheese than is necessary. If you cut back on the oil and cheese that she calls for, most of the recipes (dessert section excluded) are reasonably healthy.

If you love to cook, and you don't stick to one type of cuisine, this is a good book to have in your library. Approximately half of the recipes have a beautiful full color photo. The book has a sturdy spine and is printed on glossy paper.

I have made a lot of delicious but simple recipes from this book. It was the first Nigella's I got. But when will the DVDs, available in the UK, become available here? I saw her serie "Forever Summer" on BBC-America a while back and it is absolutely fabulous to watch. She has a way of measuring and using her hands that make actual preparation of a recipe a pleasure rather than the uncreative and impersonal chore of measuring "exact" tsp and 1/4 tspn. Being French I am used to a "pinch" of this, a "small glass" of wine, in other words using your judgement and "make it your own". Nigella makes being in the kitchen fun, but you really only get that by watching her. I don't really love cooking after all these years... but watching her do it her way inspires me. What can I say?

There's no doubt that this is a gorgeous book. Unfortunately, I think it's better for your coffee table than your kitchen. While there are beautiful pictures (lots of Nigella) and several great recipes, the book didn't seem very useful to me. I bought and loved "How to be a Domestic Goddess", so, I got this book from the library to check it out, thinking it would be somewhat the same. I have to say I was dissapointed. I only found 4 usable recipes in the whole book. (Granted, I am not a gourmet chef by any means, but I do consider myself to be a lover of great food and a Good cook.) While there are some nice recipes and lots of great photos this book is a more of a "pretty to look at" picture book than a hard core recipe resource.