# Anyone heard of Nigella Express?



## linguini (Jun 6, 2008)

This is a book by Nigella Lawson, who is a celebrity chef in the UK. I think its quite a good book, with lots of recipes. The emphasis is on making food quickly, hence the word "express".


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## beetrootbrain (Jun 4, 2008)

Yes its brilliant - i got given it as a birthday present and it really is wondeful. It has a great recipe for a king prawn curry! 

I love her style and attitude towards cooking. I love the fact that she has cupboards of branded biscuits and chocolate and doesn´t feel that she must make everything from scratch - its a perfect book for someone like me, whois perhaps a little impatient when it comes to cooking!


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

We get her shows in the U.S. too. I admire her cooking skills and her perfect comfort with who she is and that she's zaftig.  I also like that she's imminently practical in her approach to judicious use of prepared foods- but she doesn't make them a linchpin of her recipes like Sandra Lee.


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Lawson teaches cooking. Lee teaches table setting. Lawson is an attractive woman. Lee thinks she is. The comparison is wholly unfair.

BDL


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## rsteve (May 3, 2007)

I think they're both beautiful and talented. I think both take full advantage of available resources and researchers. I recall reading that Lawson had a relatively "privileged" upbringing, while Lee was raised in poverty.


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## norma (Jun 4, 2006)

Interesting... It's hard to understand how somebody who was brought up in poverty and then later became a "chef", knows only how to mix jars, cans and mostly processed food. Usually that kind of experience (being poor), teaches you how to make the best with the few ingredients that you have.


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## mikelm (Dec 23, 2000)

They're both hotties. :bounce:

I saw the chef-biography of Sandra Lee; according to it her show is one of the most-watched programs on FoodTV. Apparantly there are a lot of time-challenged housewives out there. It also described her charitable contributions and activities, which are _very_ extensive. I can do without the tablescape stuff and in fact don't watch the program very often. I will switch to the PBS "Create" channel if they're cooking, or go to The Military Channel and watch things blow up. :smoking:

Mike


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## rayjam (Aug 3, 2008)

I love Nigella. I wish she was on Food Network more often. She is very soothing, to watch.


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## ishbel (Jan 5, 2007)

I've got two or three of her books - but gave up after her 'Summer' TV series. Same old, same old.

It seems to me that her 'Express' book sounds like a riposte to Delia Smith's recent book/tv series using 'cheat' ingredients to speed up the cooking process ('cheat' is HER word, not mine!)


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

Lawson is everything that's been described. She's a truly good looking woman, a self-described "home cook" (she has no formal training), at ease in the kitchen and with the ingredients she uses, and obviously comfortable with her role as cooking teacher. And she's pleasant to watch at work and to listen to. In short, a perfect host. 

Nigella cooks the way most housewives do, using a mix of whole and convenience products, without making a big deal of either. Which is why so many millions can relate to her. As a friend described it, "she cooks in the real world."

However, I suspect the only reason she's a food network star is the first one. If she was flat chested and pimply faced we would never see her there, because that seems to be their sole criterium lately---good looking women with free-flowing chests. Talent is secondary---or even irrelevent.


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## rayjam (Aug 3, 2008)

She is a good looking woman, who cooks with grace and charm. In an age where sexy can get raunchy, she has my respct. She is proud to be a Mom!!! I admire her a great deal. :lips:


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## jennyhicks (Feb 4, 2008)

She is a really talented cook and I am really disappointed that she has gone down the "express" route. Her cooking is amazingly tasty and quick anyway even when she cooks everything from stratch. Why has she had to result in cooking with shop bought convienence food? The food she is using is high in fat, salt and is over packaged.


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## norma (Jun 4, 2006)

I can't believe that with a cooking goddess at home, her husband is doing a nine-eggs-a-day diet.

Nigella's husband cracks obesity thanks to egg-only diet | Mail Online


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## amazingrace (Jul 28, 2006)

She puts me to sleep. Literally! :look:


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## headless chicken (Apr 28, 2003)

Yes she is sexy and all but I've loved her shows from the start, how she presents and describes the food and the process. Rachel Ray though I thought appealing to the eye, I didn't like her shows and have never watched anywho. 

I too was skeptical about her Express show, I have I think 3 of her book (with Baking like a Domestic Goddess being my first) especially after being bored watching her Summer show. I've only seen a few Express episodes and I'm kinda getting back into it. Yes looks do play a pivotal part in making TV but did Martha Steward or Julia Child have the same rack or hour glass figure? The talent still shows and its how that talent is projected. Though I can't say much for Nigella's knife skills, she can cook amazingly.


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## longfellow (Jun 11, 2008)

I think the food network has gone to the dogs. they seem to move to personalities instead of good chefs. I hear they are going to pilot a show of naked play boy bunnies demonstating the many ways of cool whip and fruit.
who needs keller with show like this.


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## bazza (Apr 2, 2007)

She is the daughter of Nigel Lawson who was Chancellor to "The Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher. I always thought she got her own show because of who she is, wow that sounds cynical. But she can cook and is quite sexy. Two more reasons for having a TV show.


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

> but did Martha Steward or Julia Child have the same rack or hour glass figure? <

And neither of them ever had a show on the Food Network.

The defense rests!


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## koukouvagia (Apr 3, 2008)

Looks aren't everything. They have replaced my beloved Jamie Oliver slot on Saturdays with The Cooking Loft with some Guardaschielli lady. She lacks style, finesse, look and appeal. (Wow that was harsh)

I used to like Nigella when she was on the E! network, when I first started getting interested in cooking shows. I could relate to her. But as I have become more knowledgeable I've become irritated with her lack of knife skills and her posh accent, though I still consider her the lesser chef of my favorite "British Chef Trinity" (Jamie, Gordon, Nigella).


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## jennyhicks (Feb 4, 2008)

Personally, I think it is all going down hill for Nigella. Feeding her husband 9 eggs a day and writing a cheats cookbook. We are contnually being told by every other chef to be creating dishes from scratch for health and cost benefits but not Nigella.


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## ishbel (Jan 5, 2007)

I would also dispute the idea that her accent is 'posh'  At least in British terms!


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## koukouvagia (Apr 3, 2008)

I am certainly no expert on english accents but I do know that there are many different ones just like there are different accents here in the states. Considering that she's a politician's daughter I assumed that her accent was what the Brits would call posh and I can hear a significant difference between hers and David Beckham's for example. I suppose I'm wrong. 

For me I just don't like her accent. Oh and Minnie Driver's accent. Don't know why but both of their accents irritate me.


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## ishbel (Jan 5, 2007)

Politicians in the UK come in all shapes, sizes and dialects. Nigella has what I would call a fairly RP accent - whilst David Beckham has an Estuary English accent. I don't know who Minnie Driver may be, so I have no comments on her accent.

English upper class accents are almost disappearing, except perhaps in TV and film. 

As a Scot, I find many English accents irritating, but I suspect they may say the same about mine. As for American accents.....


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## koukouvagia (Apr 3, 2008)

What does RP mean?

Minnie Driver is a British actress in Hollywood.

Surely our american accents can't be that annoying.


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

"Received pronunciation," as in "This is the B. B. C."

BDL


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## norma (Jun 4, 2006)

Nigella used to have an excellente forum, which people from all around the globe. But last year, just before Christmas, she closed it. 
Even though I admire her, looks like she doesn't care for her fans. Maybe she is a bit self-centered person. However, she kept her shop. 
www.nigella.com


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Food stars should be about the food. Not the book or their show. 

Keller's PBS series was dry, technical but insifghtul for the clueful (to hijack a climbing term). Yet if you liked food it was wonderful. If you came to stand in awe of a great famous chef, you wouldn't have got the show at all. It wasn't about Keller though I'm told he has a huge ego.

More food programming should do this and focus on the food, not the personality and ego.

On a topic related only at a tertiary level, I love the color orange. My favorite color. But the only time it shows up, it's junky Rachel Ray product or a Microsoft ad for an equally junky product. Just make something in orange because it's a great color finally!!!

Phil


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