Nothing Fancy: Unfussy Food for Having People Over Hardcover – 31 Oct. 2019

This is a great cookery book as the recipes are easy to follow and produce great food. Very glad I bought this book

A good straightforward hands on help

Without a doubt the best cookbook I’ve ever had since I was given Goodhousekeeping cookbook in 1989, and I’ve had dozens in my life. This is simple, ever recipe is delicious, the writing is funny, I use it for family cooking too, not just entertaining, but when I do, I am always asked where/how/who the recipes were by, and there from my most foody of friends. A great success. Only one in here that doesn’t work is the lasagna, but I can forgive her for the amount do successful dinner parties they had enabled!

Disclaimer: I'm a long time (at least from a millenial's point of view) Roman's fangirl. I think she is the coolest person that walked the food world and I would buy her books for the witty observations and footones only.So I'm obviously biased, that's my point. Nothing fancy was probably the only book that I pre-ordered as soon as it was possible to do so (and as soon as I made sure that I was buying the UK/AUS version of it - seriously what's the deal with cups???).When I finally got it, I read it from cover to cover and the writing didn't disappoint (which was a given, I guess).Now on to the book itself: as a fangirl I'm used to Roman's love for anchovies, bold flavors and loads of citrus or tangy notes. If that's not your thing, you might want to pick another book.I'm not sure if I love the "entertaining" theme (although I really really dig her "snacks" section and all the "parties"): because of it most of the recipes are build for at least 4 people (this is obviously not wrong, it just makes annoying when you're only entertaining two people). I was also not very excited by the choices on "meals", because I found that they're a bit on repetitive side (I don't really need 4 different ways to make chicken on the same book). My biggest let down, sadly, was on the dessert section though: she kind of stuck to (old fashion) classics, like tiramisu or (this one killed me) pannacotta. I mean, sure they have a tweak or two, but not even Roman will convince me to serve anyone (starting with myself) a pannacotta. For all these reasons I'm only giving it 4 stars. Everything else is glossy, beautiful and genius (and that garlic and anchovies bread is reason enough to buy the book).

Lovely photographs makes a great gift for yourself or others the recipies work well easy to follow simple dishes

Excellent birthday present. Hopefully being used as a great start to basic cooking.

Despite what another reviewer has written, this is the UK edition of the book, with UK measurements. The publisher has just used sample pages from the American edition here, which they should really fix to avoid further confusion...My copy arrived today and I’m absolutely in love with it already - beautiful design, super-cool saturated photography and really tempting, appealing recipes. I’m vegetarian and there’s plenty for me, and I might sub out the anchovies on a few others. I definitely see what all the fuss is about with Alison Roman!

Why, why, why don’t you have a kindle version of this book?? I stopped buying physical cookbooks about 8 years ago because my shelves are full of (mostly unused) cookbooks!!I saw Alison on a Saturday cooking show doing a delicious roast chicken with lemons and figs recipe and immediately changed what we were having for dinner that night! Even though we had to substitute dates for the figs (because shopping assistant (aka husband) is really bad at his job) it was SOO GOOD!I’m waiting however for the kindle version as I refuse to contribute to the wasting of the world’s resources on buying even more cookbooks that may or may not get used regularly.Alison, when you ready to join us in the 21st century do let me know and I’ll be first in line to buy a digital copy! If all your recipes are as intuitive and delicious as this I’ll be a fan for life!I will change this review to 5 ⭐️ when I can get a kindle version!