One of the best cookery books every written? Nigella Lawson's best-selling first cookery book takes us through the pleasures and principles of good food, sharing not just recipes, but an understanding of food and a route to getting to know your own palate and instincts, From Basic Roast Chicken to Birthday Cake to Crumble, Nigella has it covered. An absolute delight to read.

Hailed by chefs, reviewers, cookery writers and millions of home cooks worldwide as one of the best cookery books ever written, How To Eat is more than just an imaginative collection of over 350 delicious, simple recipes. Combining Nigella's down-to-earth, practical cookery advice with a passion for food and a friendly, chatty style, you will need two copies of this glorious classic: one for the kitchen, one for the bedside table.

This is Nigel Slater's all-time favourite cookbook: "If I could only keep one cookbook, this would be it. How To Eat suits the way I cook. It is as if Nigella is sitting on a stool next to me in the kitchen as I'm cooking ... With every page you know she loves this stuff, and she wants you to love it too. It's a very, very special book for me. My own copy is falling apart."

Most popular

‌‌‌‌‌

Recommended by

Sophie Tyrrell

Head chef, 69 Highbury Hill

My copy of this is completely food splattered so I must use it a lot! V useful categories such as weekend lunch and cooking in advance. Excellent 'basics' which I refer to all the time, in particular her amazing crumble topping mixture which cannot see be bettered (involves freezing uncooked mixture first) and her best ever Victoria Sponge using some cornflour for lightness, always gets complements. Other favourites include v easy Beef in Beer with fresh horseradish cream, Blakean Fish Pie and her Cococola braised Ham. Very good for family and friends cooking ideas.

Louise Gray

Environmental journalist

My sister in law is a great cook. She gave her own well-thumbed and beloved copy of this book to my little brother, hoping it would help him learn to cook. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I needed it more so I just nicked it off him (I will give it back, promise). I think I would have been frightened of any other cookery classic but because its Nigella, it somehow makes cooking seem sexy and glamorous. Great pancake recipes and I adapted a separate Nigella recipe for chicken satay to make sticky squirrel satay sticks. (I feel sure she would approve.)

Cat Black

Food writer

As a food writer Nigella writes as a food lover, with eloquence. I read How to Eat from cover to cover when I first got it. Forget the TV, I love the writer in her. And this, her first full length book, reads like the outpouring it is, her life up to that point, with all its passion and such a human quality. I also love How to be a Domestic Goddess, which is my most used home-baking book.

Brian Stewart

Podcast host

If you don’t already love food, you’d be hard pressed not to after reading How to Eat. Perhaps nothing captures Nigella’s powerful, humorous, and informative voice as this book, which you’ll want to read cover-to-cover. It’s packed with superb narrative, tons of kitchen tips, and recipes that are manageable and highly delicious. If start somewhere, start with the Clementine Cake.

Caroline Hennessy

Food writer

In my post-university, early twenties and trying to figure out who I was and what I wanted to do, How to Eat taught me about feeding people. I devoured Nigella's prose, dog-eared her book, cooked the recipes and figured out my way, one bite at a time, into a new life. I've loved her prose and recipes ever since. See also: How to Be a Domestic Goddess, Feast and Kitchen.

Kerstin Rodgers

Chef, author and blogger

Nigella’s intimate, warm and humorous voice shines through in her writing. I love the fact that she so clearly loves eating. None of your Scarlet O’hara ladies don’t eat in public, have an appetite like a bird fastidiousness here. I’ve cooked extensively from this book. She’s a writer as well as a cook. Food is just the tool she uses to comment on what’s going on.

Susan Low

Food writer

Before she became The Domestic Goddess, Nigella Lawson was a jobbing journalist with an incisive but refreshing take on food and eating. Her debut book bIazed a food-writing trail: literary but down-to-earth, inspiring and practical, with the pleasure principle firmly at its core. I read it cover to cover when it was came out and wouldn’t part with it now.

Holly Bell

Recipe writer, presenter and blogger

Doesn't Queen Nigella conjure up with the best book titles? This is a tome of a book that's just so incredibly useful. A chapter for feeding little ones, a chapter for losing weight, one for feeding just yourself, one with meals for two... I could go on. No pictures, just writing. Let your imagination do the rest... and with Nigella's writing that's easy.

Tom Norrington-Davies

Chef

Before she hit the tv screens and became much more famous for How to be a Domestic Goddess I remember being seduced by the humour in this book. There's lots of it. There is also the unusual way the recipes are grouped into meals, such as "no effort saturday lunch" or "camp, but only slightly, dinner for 6" . Inimitable.

Caroline Kenyon

Founder/Director of The Food Awards Company

I gave this early on in our marriage to my husband, largely because I wanted it! I just love her intelligent writing and the way she evokes flavours, style and atmosphere. Bearing in mind I was later to found an international food photography awards, the lack of photos, unusually, doesn't worry me at all.

Peter Ross

Culinary librarian

Weirdly I came to this book not knowing who Nigella Lawson was - I suppose it was before she appeared on TV - and found her book inspiring and, as seems to be a theme in books I enjoy, the writers voice shone through. A book I cook from often and better than anything else she has subsequently published.

Kate Young

Blogger and cookbook author

A cookbook I can happily read cover to cover. It’s endlessly practical but also full of joy, warmth and a clear love of food. How to be a Domestic Goddess was the first of Nigella’s I cooked from, but I found this at the perfect time: when I first moved out of home. It has been a companion ever since.

Barbara Sweeney

Food writer

When a book delivers a lemon curd tart recipe that your guests claim to be the best lemon tart they've ever eaten you know you've hit gold. I devoured How to Eat when it was first published and it restored my cooking mojo. It’s personable, real and clever. Remember, this is Nigella pre-television.

Sarah Chamberlain

Food writer

Anyone who both quotes Henry James while talking about cooking and makes the best rhubarb crumble has my heart. I cook from Nigella’s books of course, but I also love to curl up in an armchair and read them when I’m feeling down. Her warmth and enthusiasm are impossible to resist.

Hattie Ellis

Food writer

The cookbook that broke conventions by showing food to be part of life, and that you could write about how this happens rather than donning a straitjacket of recipe ‘rules’. There’s such a joy of eating in the book and such a strong sense of how eating is central to home.

David Prior

Author

Nigella's first book is a reminder that she is so much more than her storied beauty. A brilliant writer and fierce intellect, the way in which she articulates the comforting power of food and its power to help us survive each day will be her enduring contribution.

Most popular

About à la carte books on ckbk

Recommended by