I love cooking.
Well, to be more accurate, I really love watching other people cook. And after much experimentation, Nigella Lawson is the cook for me.
You can keep your Jamie Oliver (my wife would if she could) and as for the Two Fat Ladies - those grotesque relics of a pre-war girls' boarding school - they can get on their bike and get out of here. I think what did The Two Fat Chefs in for me was when they went on a musselling expedition - and the slimmer, now deceased one used her motor-bike helmet as the mollusc carrier. And then, no doubt, the slimy messs went straight back on to her long, lank black hair. The helmet that is, not the mussels.
But forget the Two Fat Chefs. Nigella is a world away from that repellent pair. She is not called "the Goddess" for nothing, as this sensuous siren of the kitchen seductively glides between pantry and fiery-hot stove. There were accusations of chicanery levelled against her recently as a 'friend' disclosed that Nigella had paid her for recipes. So what! Nigella delivers the goods, even if they're created out of someone else's cook-book.
Nigella Bites is a good-value compendium on ABC DVD, with ten programs, plus two bonus recipes created just for DVD, an ingredients list and 'Nigella's Bookshelf' - a list of her favourite culinary guides, headed by a tome by our very own Stephanie Alexander.
The DVD is well engineered with special features. If you're watching a chapter, such as Party Girls, don't worry about jotting down the ingredients as Nigella shakes, seasons and stirs. Just press the 'menu' button and instead of returning to the main menu, you're confronted with a complete ingredients list for that recipe. You can then choose to go on to the regular menu, or get back to Nigella. I'll be getting back often.
Nigella isn't a full-on professional chef of the sort our own Stephanie Alexander is, or Jamie Oliver. She is an amateur who researches well, and communicates brilliantly. She looks clumsy at times as she chops and stirs -- much like us. But she is inspiring. If she can do it, we can. This is cookery instruction by seduction, not intimidation.
It's great to see the ABC (thanks, I guess, to the BBC) giving us this series in a quality so better than we saw on free-to-air television.
This is a widescreen anamorphic production with beautifully crisp and detailed image, with well-nigh perfect flesh and culinary tones. My review copy had some image break-up problems, but I would expect that this would have been resolved before public release.
Choosing one's television chef is a very personal affair. They inspire love and hate in equal measure - for every person such as me who finds the Two Fat Chefs smelly and repugnant, there's someone else who's ready to wax lyrical over them.
So the value has to be assessed by you alone - would you like to find yourself alone in the kitchen with Nigella, or would you dive through the nearest window? If you're in the former category, this is definitely one to own.
