"Nigella Feasts"

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
BreezyCooking

BreezyCooking

Washing Up
Joined
Mar 25, 2006
Messages
5,803
Location
Culpeper, VA
Repeats now showing on the "Cooking Channel". Ugh. Haven't watched her in ages & now remember why I stopped after viewing a recent segment. Her recipe for "authentic" Guacamole:

A couple of avocados mashed with juice from one lime, a small amount of chopped cilantro, & two chopped scallions. That's it. Good grief. That's not Guacomole - that's just a couple of mashed avocados.

No peppers - chili or otherwise - no garlic, no onion, no (optional) diced tomato. How bland can you get? And she stands there touting it as SO wonderful. Blech.
 
BreezyCooking said:
Repeats now showing on the "Cooking Channel". Ugh. Haven't watched her in ages & now remember why I stopped after viewing a recent segment. Her recipe for "authentic" Guacamole:

A couple of avocados mashed with juice from one lime, a small amount of chopped cilantro, & two chopped scallions. That's it. Good grief. That's not Guacomole - that's just a couple of mashed avocados.

No peppers - chili or otherwise - no garlic, no onion, no (optional) diced tomato. How bland can you get? And she stands there touting it as SO wonderful. Blech.
Click to expand...

I agree Breezy so how do you think she got so popular??? I think her recipes are god awful, and she not to much in the personality dept either... JMO
 
I haven't reviewed her biography anywhere, but seem to remember hearing that she was some kind of society/lifestyle consultant type person who then just kind of "morphed" into cooking. I've yet to see her make anything remotely interesting that hasn't been done oodles better by others. Guess she's on to appeal to the higher classes? Lol!!
 
I agree that Nigella's recipes are not much. Some of the chocolate desserts might be ok. From what I have read, she is a monied-socialite-celebrity in Britain who was given a tv cooking show. It shows...I liked the fact that she actually ate her own cooking and is not a stick figure model. But, thats about it.
 
Aw poor Nige!

There isnt an official Nigella biography as far as I know. She does have a genuine love of cooking and eating and in fact her late husband John Diamond (journalist) encouraged her in her cooking and encouraged her to write her first book How to Eat. I doubt very much she appeals to the "high" classes. I liked the early Nigella programmes, but then she moved into Nigella Feasts to appeal to the american market. It all got a bit cringeworthy, she became very stylised and was suddenly hopping on big red London buses and eating Hokey Pokey in the back of a black cab. The early Nigella was very unspoilt and a joy to watch. I have all of her books and a lot of her recipes DO work, don't judge her on the guacamole!
 
Gravy Queen said:
Aw poor Nige!

There isnt an official Nigella biography as far as I know. She does have a genuine love of cooking and eating and in fact her late husband John Diamond (journalist) encouraged her in her cooking and encouraged her to write her first book How to Eat. I doubt very much she appeals to the "high" classes. I liked the early Nigella programmes, but then she moved into Nigella Feasts to appeal to the american market. It all got a bit cringeworthy, she became very stylised and was suddenly hopping on big red London buses and eating Hokey Pokey in the back of a black cab. The early Nigella was very unspoilt and a joy to watch. I have all of her books and a lot of her recipes DO work, don't judge her on the guacamole!
Click to expand...
What I do like is her philosophy that cooking doesn't have to be a chore and tasty meals can be run up in short time.

What I don't like is her propensity for including recipes in her books that she has lifted almost word for word from other authors' books without any acknowledgement.
 
agreed, maddie. her plagiarism is without bounds, or so i've heard.

we have a few of those types in the states. but they're smart enough to take credit on a tv show first showcasing the originator, then publishing their cookbooks. lol
 
Yes I even heard from forum members from the old Nigella website who said they saw their recipes appear in her books . Then again recipes do get fiddled with over the years and they are not really new . I always think if you use someone else's recipe you should reference it .
 
Most of us here know by now that's there can't be plagiarism with ingredients, only with instructions. There are only a few ways to instruct someone how to make Guacamole for example, so it really makes me laugh when someone claims "plagiarism" with any but the most complicated recipe.
I always enjoy Andy M's signature..."If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe"..Carl Sagan
 
Last edited:
Kayelle said:
Most of us here know by now that's there can't be plagiarism with ingredients, only with instructions. There are only a few ways to instruct someone how to make Guacamole for example, so it really makes me laugh when someone claims "plagiarism" with any but the most complicated recipe.
I always enjoy Andy M's signature..."If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe"..Carl Sagan
Click to expand...
Yes, I agree about similarities in the wording of recipes but I was referring to NL's use not only word for word of recipes but even copying the rubric written by the original author.

In one instance I looked at an NL recipe and thought "Hmm, I recognise that", gone to the other author's book and NL has definitely done a cut-and-paste job on it, including the comment that "This is my late mother-in-law's recipe for...." The book in question was published around 25 years before NL's so there was no issue of who was plagiarising who. After that I started to look out for it.

I'm a bit of a cookery nerd and have over 300 cookery books so I might spot what others don't
 
That's true Gravyqueen. Her dad was Nigel Lawson, who was in the government some years back. I think she makes some of her dishes look easy and quick for entertaining and the men like her of course but you need a larder full of ingredients right there, right now to do what she does. However, her avocado and blue cheese dip is amazing
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom