How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking - Hardcover

Lawson, Nigella

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786867973 ISBN 13: 9780786867974

Publisher: Hyperion, 2001

Synopsis

"The trouble with much modern cooking is that the mood it induces in the cook is one of skin-of-the-teeth efficiency, all briskness and little pleasure. Sometimes that's the best we can manage, but at other times we don't want to feel stressed and overstretched, but like a domestic goddess, trailing nutmeggy fumes of baking pie in our languorous wake" --from How to Be a Domestic Goddess

How to Be a Domestic Goddess is not about being a goddess, but about feeling like one. What this deliciously mouthwatering cookbook demonstrates is that it's not actually hard to bake a pan of muffins or a sponge layer cake, but the appreciation and satisfaction they bring are disproportionately high. Filled with over 220 gorgeously illustrated recipes, this book understands our anxieties, feeds our fantasies, and puts cakes, pies, pastries, preserves, puddings, breads, and cookies back in our own kitchens. The domestic goddess has to maintain her (or his) cool when faced with pastry, of course--but with Nigella Lawson's guidance, even puff pastry can be pain-free.

About this title

About the Author

Nigella Lawson is the author of How to Eat, How to Be a Domestic Goddess (for which she won the British Author of the Year Award), Nigella Bites, Forever Summer, Feast, Nigella Express, and Nigella Christmas. She has been profiled in the New York Times Magazine and in many other publications. She lives in London with her husband and two children.

Reviews

Called "England's it girl" by Gourmet magazine, Lawson (How to Eat) brings to America her second cookbook, highly popular in England. Lawson, the food editor for British Vogue, suggests ways to feel like a domestic goddess (rather than undergo the necessary lifestyle changes to become one), taking cooks back to an era of less stress and more simple pleasures. The recipes, written in Lawson's characteristic lively, witty manner, encourage this theme. The Store-Cupboard Chocolate-Orange Cake will please the nose with its rich, intense aroma and indulge the taste buds with its full chocolate and orange flavor. The Coconut Macaroons seem soft and chewy with a concentrated coconut essence (though they may need to bake for slightly longer than the suggested 20 minutes). The chapters cover categories from cakes to pies and from chocolate to Christmas. One chapter includes recipes for kid foods as well as recipes that children can follow. The book is designed to instill confidence and capability, positing that if Nigella can make these delights with ease and in a relaxed manner, so can anyone else, "trailing nutmeggy fumes." The beautiful color photos set the mouth to watering. (Nov.)Forecast: Timed to launch with her television series Nigella Bites on the E! channel and Style networks this fall, this book will bask in the warm, fuzzy and competent glow of Lawson's renown. She'll be a hit in the U.S.; her book will get ample promo and fly off the shelves.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786867973
• ISBN 13: 9780786867974
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 374