Feast: Food to Celebrate Life (Appearance may vary)

This is a lovely book in like new condition. Very pleased.

Beautifully written and illustrated book. A joy to read.

Nigella is my original muse, she single handedly got me back into the kitchen and cooking when the days of making cookies with my grandmother passed and I had to start doing it on my own. I have all of her books and honestly they are something one can actually cook from, my shelves are bending from the amount of cookbooks they house but only half are being used to make dinners and cakes, others I look at for inspiration and for pictures but Nigella's recipes are worth every penny one spends on a cookbook. I can't express my love and gratitude for this woman; she's intelligent, cheerful, honest a magnificent food writer who actually got me into writing as well, I even got my first KitchenAid mixer because she used her so much to make all of her delectable treats. So fear not, this and other books that she penned are not only gorgeous to look at but they can help anyone put something mouth watering on the table in no time. This one has pictures on almost every page and a short little bit of how this came to be or how she eats it before each recipe, probably my favorite part of the book.This book is broken into occasions rather than seasons or ingredients - Thanksgiving & Christmas, New Year, Meatless Feasts, Valentine's Day, Easter, Passover, Breakfast, Kitchen Feasts, Kiddiefeast, Cut-out Cookies, Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame, A Georgian Feast, Eid, Ultimate Feasts, Hallowe'en, Rosh Hashanah, A Venetian Feast, Festival of Lights, Partytime, Midnight Feast, Wedding Feast, Funeral Feast ( somber I know but the food is actually very appropriate and having herself lose her mother, sister and first husband to cancer, Nigella is still living life and making the best of what she has) so no matter what one celebrates they can find something good in this super large volume. I have to admit that I use this daily and don't wait for special occasions.Feast is probably her biggest ( thickest) book to date, and I made some good things from it. Let me tell you, the Pumpkin Cheesecake (on page 68 ) was my first cheesecake and no only was it ridiculously easy it turned out so good I was shocked I made it myself. There was a suggestion for Butterscotch sauce on the page to pour on top, I made it as well ( gotta love the pairing suggestions) and the combination was just divine. The sauce would also go well on something like an apple and macadamia nut crumble or anything thatis sweet.Gingerbread muffins on page 91 were so warm and cozy I make them in cold weather to keep the chill of, the trouble is stopping at one. If you want your house to smell like a home, make this!Roast Loin of pork with caraway, lemon and garlic - spicy fragrant, nothing ordinary about this simple to make dinner, makes great leftovers as the rub on top intensifies.Chicken Pot Pie - I guarantee that after this one no one will be shopping for it in the frozen section of their supermarket, flaky dough, creamy hot center, lost of peas, ham and chicken in sauce, the only caution is not burning the tongue as it's hard not to gobble up.There's even Muttar Paneer - an excellent Indian dish, makes me feel silly for ever thinking it was hard to make. Now I can control the ingredients and how much salt and fat goes into it, one can make a healthy lunch out of an exotic staple after all.This book has everything, I don't know how this woman thinks it all up, but she makes these recipes and writes about them, she feeds them to her children and friends, real people are involved into bringing this book to life and it shows.- Kasia S.

Well organized, beautiful pictures and cup/teaspoon measurements and lb/oz weights

I bought this first Nigella book after making the quadruple chocolate loaf cake recipe from her television show. Some bloggers have given the recipe bad reviews on their sites but this was my first successful cake AND it was made in the food processor. The homemade cake tastes just like the superexpensive exotic ingredients brownies sold at Bloomingdale's that I used to forego lunch to buy in high school. I like this recipe because it works and it uses ingredients that I usually have on hand otherwise cookbooks are just for browsing.I made the cake a second time and substituted olive oil for the butter and 2 spoons of Hellman's mayo for the sour cream because I was out of the proper ingredients and the cake still turned out fantastic. FANTASTIC.I caught her new show just as she was starting this recipe so I saved the last half of her show on dvr and it is still on my dvr so I can have it playing whenever I make another loaf. A reviewer on another cookbook wrote that this other tv cook did not ever give measurements on her tv show so that one would have to buy her books but upon reflection, I have never bought a tv cook's books who did NOT give measurements on their shows. Unconsciously, I seem to be less interested in finding the books of those handful of tv cooks who don't give measurements and watching their shows is just vegging out in front of the tv set. The best tv cooks get you out of your seat and into the kitchen. I never did that watching Nigella Bites but I bought three of her cookbooks after catching that half-episode of Feast even though Feast does recycle some recipes from the other two books. The perfect success of the cake made me believe in Nigella. There are just too many cooks with books with similar recipes to know what to buy and a search on Amazon will show that every five years, the same ideas and themes get recycled. Letting the consumer test drive the product brings in hesitating bystanders like me.p.s. I just made the chocolate gingerbread and it is very good so long as it is not overcooked.

I love this cookbook! My family has our own recipes and traditions for most holidays, so I haven't used any of the complete menus, but have added in some of the side dishes for celebration dinners. Mostly, though, I've used it to pick up new recipes for everyday. I often use cookbooks more to get new ideas that I combine with existing recipes or tailor to my own tastes, and there are plenty of recipes that work well for that. There's a champagne risotto, listed as a post-New Year's Eve recipe, that I merged with my usual risotto recipe, and it was delicious. I also tried and loved the "hot cross bunny" - a rabbit curry I made with chicken. I'm planning to try out the other curry recipes as well. The cakes and other desserts are also amazing. This is also so well-written that it is fun just to flip through and read the descriptions and recipes.

I bought this to learn how to brine a turkey. It worked well, however, as a lot of celebrity chefs do - they say to use expensive products like maple syrup. I didn't use that in the brine as far too expensive and so tried to use a syrup alternative. There seemed to be a lot of syrup and sugar goo in the bottom and so not sure it did much? Another recipe for horseradish sauce didn't work as too much cream and yoghurt. It had very little flavour. So ended up using the ingredients but in our own way in order to have horseradish with a bit of cream and yoghurt! Good book in that I like the variety of recipes but be prepared to adapt the recipe to your own tastes.

This book is brilliant! I had mainly bought it for her turkey recipe as I've been wanting to try it for years, unfortunately I couldn't find her Christmas book at a reasonable price.I'm so pleased I bought this though as it not only has her best Christmas recipes, it also covers lots of other events too. She gives a little background on her experiences then the reason why she had progressed the idea.I was pretty nervous about trying out a new idea for Christmas, but the recipe was very simple to follow and a great success!

Upon receiving this book it was opened and a number of the recipies were explored and it seemed to be well laid out an easy to follow the steps involved until the final product was finished. This gave me the satisfaction that the rest of the recipies were laid out in a simple to follow set of instructions. Obviously, some tasks may take some time to complete, but this has been mentioned and the instruction was placed in the relevant position.All in all this was a brilliant book in my opinion, and was well worth the money spent on it, I would certainly wholeheartedly recommend it not only for the feasts but for special family celebrations.Just one word of warning the book is not light, so be aware if giving it as a present.

I Love Nigella. I love the book and I'm not kidding, her seasonal salad on page 59 has changed my life. I think I make this salad 2x a week (with loads of leftovers in between) as I'm low carbing (swap splenda for the sugar). It is hands down my absolutely favorite salad EVER. Yes, may sound over the top for a salad (!!) but I'm seriously not kidding. Just roast a turkey breast (or chicken/breasts for that matter)) on it's own, dice it up and add to the salad (and I add a dollop of mayo on the top) and you'll think you've died and gone to crunch heaven. Absolutely fantastic and the family gets to eat the chicken or turkey made with another recipe. The rest of the book has very easy meals to put together for any type meal you want to prepare and her desserts are divine and I can find most of the ingredients which is a huge PLUS when an expat living abroad. Lastly, Nigella obviously eats and enjoys food and it's apparent in her comments before each recipe. She's my absolute favorite.

I couldn’t be without this book. I gave my lovely daughter in law my copy so I bought myself another. Try out the beef recipe, the Yorkshire puddings and the roast potatoes. The old fashioned chocolate cake is a crowd pleaser 🍰