Celebrity Chef Match
No longer naked, Jamie pulls on his sensible chef's hat and apron with his latest book Jamie's Kitchen. Things may still be eternally "pukka," but gone are the days of quick dishes to knock up with a hangover. The basic premise revolves around Oliver's experience in setting up a restaurant school to transform unemployed kids into professional chefs. As a result the book appears more ambitious than previous offerings.
While advancing to such mouth-watering dishes as mozzarella, bacon and bread kebabs on rosemary sticks initially we are brought right back to the basics of kitchen craft with lessons in baking, boiling, steaming, stewing, frying, roasting, grilling and poaching. It is in this respect that the book reaches out to the impoverished second year imprisoned in the self-catering nightmare of Cowley Rd. Your average student may be unlikely to attempt the more ambitious recipes on offer, (be warned this food in this book requires time and effort) Jamie gives them somewhere to go from the monotony beans on toast.
His focus on the quality and seasonal nature of produce may just instill enough confidence in the would-be student chef to by-pass Hassan's or Ahmed's and take the twenty-four hour Tesco by storm!
Nigella Lawson is the Anti-Delia. Far from the frumpy polo-necks and Yorkshire puddings of the Smith-era, one suspects Nigella's reputation in the kitchen is less to do with mastery over utensils and everything to do with being a bona-fide sex-goddess. In Forever Summer; the spread includes dishes like Slut-Red Rasberries in Chardonnay Jelly, and Margarita Ice-Cream; "surely what angels would eat at their hen night".
The culinary seductress is of course an extremely shrewd creation on Lawson's part but it would be wrong to allow the food to fall by the way-side. The recipes in Forever Summer are founded upon the appeal of simplicity, freshness, immediacy and a spirit of experimentation and are therefore well suited to the demands of student cooking.
The main draw-back however lies in Nigella's central premise of extending the tastes of the summer into the darkest depths of the British Winter. There are occasions that some of the dishes seem more like appetizers at a barbecue than a steaming feast to satisfy those unfortunate souls taking the long, cold trek home from the library. Despite these reservations, the simplicity characterizing Lawson's culinary style makes this book a winner for wannabe domestic goddesses everywhere.
31st Oct 2002