Eat: The Little Book of Fast Food by Nigel Slater

Eat: The Little Book of Fast Food Reviews

• 
  Rebecca

  Post-cooking review:
  Nah mate, this is not a good cookbook. Nigel says the recipes are 'inspired by tweets' (which, firstly, sounds like pure wank) - is that a covert way of saying they haven't been properly tested? Because I am a pretty competent cook, but NOTHING from this book has worked the way Nigel says - either recipes are almost inedibly bad or sad, or they need really substantial, base-level altering to work out. For a book that's meant to inspire quick dinners, such unreliable recipes are really not on. And it's extra sad because normally I love Nigel... until he started joining the food writer scramble to churn out a cookbook a year
  
  
  Original, just received as a present, review:
  This is supposed to be a kind of update on
  Real Fast Food. It's good, but in all honestly I preferred the former - it's more practical and less wishy-washy, with fewer recipes that look like they could be liabilities. There are still several I'd like to try though - Salmon with artichokes (p125), Spelt, basil & ricotta cakes (p131), Bacon & pureed beans (p177), & Wasabi miso beef (p355) to name just a few...
• 
  Odette Cortés

  Okay, so here is the problem. I love food. I love cooking food. But there are times when I want simple, fast, and delicious food because I don't have the energy to cook a 12 ingredient 20 step meal. Fast food and gourmet are words that don't always share the same sentence. So when I see cookbooks like that, written in more than two pages, my brain shuts down. Nigel Slater' Eat is a cookbook that addresses that problem.
  
  Compact. This is how many recipes in the book can be described. I was excited when reading the introduction as Slater announced that some of them were the size of a tweet. Food economy and word economy combine in the page and the result is a book that has tons of suggestions on cooking easy, yet delicious fast (super fast) food.
  
  Eat contains recipes for all moods and situations. You can find an assortment of dishes you can eat in your hand or perhaps to sit down and enjoy in a bowl. Different flavors, textures and ingredients are combined in the creation of speedy recipes.
  
  So I put the book to the test. The recipe I tried was the "Tomato Focaccia". Five ingredients, two paragraphs, tons of flavor, ate it with one hand. Most elaborate part of the dish was cutting the tomatoes. An in a few minutes I had a fragrant sandwich in my hands, which I ate very gladly.
  
  I got this book from NetGalley.
• 
  Dan

  Well, Slater definitely loves chorizo...
• 
  Nat

  I really liked the simplicity of the recipes in here. Most of them have very few ingredients, which makes the food quick to prepare. Some of the recipes aren't quite as simple as they seem, but I've enjoyed everything I've made in here. I really like how a lot of the recipes suggest tweaks you can make once you get tired of the original.
• 
  Sarah

  Some more simple, delicious recipes from Nigel Slater. His food is always unapologetically British, but also incredibly tasty.
  
  4/5 stars.
• 
  Cassandra

  ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
  
  I was attracted to this cookbook because the description advertised quick and easy meals. I'm a bit of a novice in the kitchen, so 'easy' is definitely what I need. And I always wait until the last minute to cook, so 'quick' was another a big draw for me.
  
  The recipes are nicely organized based on how you cook them (e.g., in the frying pan, on the grill, in the oven, in a wok, etc.). There is also a quick guide to recipes based on the main ingredient at the beginning of the book (e.g., chicken, beef, cod, vegetables, etc.). The back of the book has an alphabetized index based on ingredients. This allows you to look for recipes based on things you may already have (or have a craving for), which is really cool! The ingredients are listed at the top of the recipes, but the amounts are not listed until the instructions. There are also a bunch of really appetizing photos to go with many of the recipes!
  
  The recipes are quite versatile, with quite a few that were not really my style. However, with over 600 options, that wasn't really a problem. There were a number of recipes that I bookmarked for follow-up, with my favorite being the Bacon Boulangere! It's simple (only 3 ingredients!), combines my favorite foods, and doesn't take a lot of work!
  
  The book description for Eat suggests that the recipes might appeal to busy parents and while I agree that they might appeal to the parents, the children might not be a huge fan. At least the children in my life. They tend to be really picky eaters that don't appreciate good food, if that makes any sense. However, the novice cooks and discerning food aficionados the book description also mentioned would definitely love the recipes in this book and that is who I would recommend it for!
• 
  Karen Foster

  Nigel Slater is my absolute favorite food writer, cook, kitchen-gardener and all round food enthusiast. He has a way of waxing lyrical about the simplest of life's culinary pleasures and humblest ingredients, that sets him apart...His writing is passionate and evocative, yet somehow down to earth.
  This book may be diminutive in size, but it is really quite beautiful. The text, cover design & photography (which Slater art directs himself) are utterly gorgeous- but it's the philosophy of the book that really won my heart. It's a book of dinner inspirations rather than strict recipes, of making the mundane and every-day, just a little bit more special. All you need are a few fresh ingredients (often only four of five) and the most basic of equipment. This wonderful book will sit on my desk at work, where I hope a quick browse can encourage me to create my own little bit of deliciousness, when I need a spot of inspiration...
• 
  Elizabeth Grieve

  I have an old paperback of the Nigel Slater book, Real Fast Food, (and a couple of others) and love its simplicity and wealth of ideas (and lack of illustrations). This new one was, I thought, not quite as good, being a little more 'style over substance' with lots of white space and perhaps less actual content. Some of the recipes are not what I would call 'fast', such as stews and slow roast meat dishes etc so not sure the title is quite right for this collection. Nevertheless I did find some great ideas which I've bookmarked and look forward to trying.
  
  Review of an advance digital copy from the publisher.
• 
  Sunil

  I've been a fan Nigel Slater for a while now. I believe he is more practical with his instructions and less of a pedant which is very welcome in a field dominant by pedants. This book is an extension of first, but is still able to hold on its own. The recipes are eclectic and drawn from different cultures and cuisines. They are easy to prepare with ingredients that are readily available in the market. A handy investment if you are a novice or have early level interest in cooking.
• 
  Jay

  ARC kindly provided by NetGalley on behalf of the publishers
  
  a simply presented cook book full of amazing dishes & delicious deserts
• 
  Mary

  I would no doubt eat everything in this book if it were set in front of me, but I probably won’t make many of the recipes. I’m lacking potatoes, or I would try this one for supper tonight:
  
  James’s Potato Tortilla egg, potato, shallot Cut an unpeeled medium to large potato into very, very small dice—a brunoise, as they say in cheffy circles. Melt a thick slice of butter in a small, shallow 6-inch (15cm) pan. Add the potatoes and cook till soft and pale gold, about 10 minutes. Add a large shallot, peeled and very, very finely sliced, and cook for 3 to 5 minutes to soften. Beat an egg with seasoning, then pour it over the onion and potato. Cook for about 3 minutes, until it puffs up around the edges, then finish cooking it under a hot broiler, leaving it liquid in the center.
  
  …But I think it would seriously need cheese. And now I’m hungry.
  Great index. Recommended.
• 
  Fiona Stocker

  This book is fantastic. Nigel Slater has an instinctive way with food, what goes together, how we want to eat and how to make it quickly. I especially liked the first chapter on 'food to hold in your hands'. I made a pulled pork roll for dinner one night inspired by this and my son couldn't praise it highly enough. If you too have a thirteen year old who usually communicates by grunting, you'll know this is revolutionary stuff.
  I originally borrowed this from the library, having stumbled across it on the shelves. I loved it so much I bought a copy. I'm very choosy about cookbooks as they can proliferate, but I'm very glad to have this as an addition to my shelves.
• 
  Sarah

  Nigel Slater's love of food is contagious and it leaks into every page of this book. The recipes are generally simple and, of things I've made so far, tasty, without too many extraneous or hard to track down ingredients. The recipes aren't always the most dinner-friendly -- a few more "serving suggestion" type comments wouldn't have gone amiss. I pretty much sat down and basically read this book cover to cover like a novel, so honestly I'd say it's worth a look solely for his infectious enthusiasm for uncomplicated food, the actual recipes aside.
• 
  Rossa

  Many excellent recipes here that are simple to make and the ingredients are easy to source. As a bonus it's beautifully written, it's like you're having a conversation with Nigel about food. The recipes go off on tangents which is both charming and useful.
• 
  My Tam

  One of my favorite cookbooks of all time. Accessible recipes from classics to bold new global flavors. I’ve been eating and cooking from here since it’s been published when I was in grad school and keep coming back for more.
• 
  Linette

  The bangers and mash recipe in this book has become my go to go sausages. This is why it got a 4. Not a 5 though because I had it from the library and don't feel the need to go and buy it.
• 
  Anna Bodzoń

  Jedna z ulubionych!
• 
  Jo Lin

  Not rating this book because I only used 1-2 recipes, mainly because of a lack of ingredients and an unwillingness to further crowd an already stuffed spice cabinet. I mean cabinets.
• 
  Alex Seath

  Perfect for lovers of intuitive cooking and food writing.
• 
  Elsabe Retief

  I love the format of the book, the fabric cover and the way the recipes are written with “ a few things” on the side. The font is a joy and the size of the book has a feel to it that is just lovely.
  Fast, uncomplicated comfort meals with combinations of ingredients that becomes far more the their sum.
  
  The ingenuity of Nigel Slater - capturing in words how we feel about food. A healing bowl of rice and veggies - it fixes everything, smooths over all the rough spots and take the edge off almost anything.
  
  Definitely one of the books I want on my shelf!
• 
  Sharon Wildfang

  Liked the relatively simple recipes and numerous variations thereon. If I had room for even one more cookbook, I would definitely consider adding this to my collection!
• 
  Nerisa Eugenia Waterman

  When I received this cookbook I was surprised how exceptionally small this book was, with 600 recipes I was expecting something huge. However, I could not stop thinking how this book reminded me of those Holy Bibles you still find in some of those fancy hotels.
  
  Sure enough when I turned to the back cover of this cookbook I was not surprised when the first sentence read… “The Holy Grail of home cooking is food that is quick to make but not thoughtless or compromised.” What a big statement…for a cookbook that is truly amazing in size… with truly amazing innovative recipes… this cookbook has definitely taken the meaning of fast food to an entirely new level.
  
  Now as I stated this book is smaller than the average cookbook that I believe could be a blessing… Why? Well…I could just throw this cookbook in my tote bag and head to the supermarket or farmers market and decide on a whim what to cook for dinner tonight.
  
  However with every blessing… there is a curse….the book is smaller than your average cookbook and that means so is the writing. I also had a very hard time getting this cookbook to stand upright in my cookbook holder and I found myself grabbing the book to read the recipe…which is… a big NO in my world. I try to keep my cookbooks as pristine as possible…it’s hard to do… but I try.
  
  However this is not enough of a reason to give up on this cookbook, this cookbook is a treasure trove of simple and amazing recipes and I had a hard time choosing which recipe to start with…this cookbook is definitely one of those cookbooks you just have to cook your way through…and I did for three days.
  
  With amazing food photography by photographer Jonathan Lovekin, and each recipe having an amazing photograph to accompany it, this foodie was definitely inspired and hit the kitchen and start cooking.
  
  So what recipes did I choose?
  
  “Miso Soup with Beef and Kale” on Day 1, “Lentil Bolognaise” on Day 2, “Summer Squash Gratin” and a “Strawberry and Cucumber Salad” on Day 3. Now the “Strawberry and Cucumber Salad” was listed in the dessert section…now to each their own…I started with the salad and let me tell you it was the most refreshing and delicious salad I ever had…the combination of strawberries, cucumbers, mint, honey and elderflower syrup was simply….amazing!
  
  I love a cookbook that takes you on the wild side and encourages you to try something new….there is no way you can ever be bored with a meal ever again…. Especially with this cookbook on your kitchen shelf. And so with that said….
  Yes…I highly recommend this book…and it should be on every cook’s wish list for the holidays.
  
  
  MY FULL REVIEW:
  http://myohosisters.webs.com/apps/blo...-
• 
  Tina Culbertson

  I don’t know if this will be one of my favorite Nigel Slater books yet as I haven’t had time to delve into the entire volume. I do know I’m loving it so far.
  
  It’s rather hard to beat The Kitchen Diaries, for me anyway, but this book Eat will give it a run for it’s money.
  
  How wonderful it would be to follow Nigel around for a few months and learn some of his methods. Gardening is the challenge for me and he has such lovely gardens, but I digress. If you are looking for a cookbook with a traditional format then this may not be for you. He writes in a smooth flow embedding recipes into the conversation. For me, I love it as I am a fan of Nigel’s writing.
  
  What I liked
  
  Well, just about everything ! The writing style, the simplicity of the recipes, his focus on nutrition and the variations you can try with each recipe.
  
  The cloth cover is lovely but I will worry about stains. The size is compact enough to be tossed into a bag when we travel so I’ll have a reference book for my temporary kitchen.
  
  What I didn’t like
  
  It’s a conundrum when addressing the cloth cover of this book. It reminds me of cookbooks from 40+ years ago I would find in my grandmother’s home. As I mentioned above, my concern is when I am cooking my hands get oily or stained with juices. I don’t want to mar this gorgeous book but it is bound to happen sooner or later.
  
  This (image below on my blog) looks like the European version. I like that cover better:
  
  
  So many recipes to try but I was lucky enough to have a friend who lives in England share a few from her copy. Eat wasn’t available in the US until very recently.
  
  I have made Marmalade Chicken and Pork and Figs so far. Next up will be a pasta dish with cream, mushrooms and bacon – Yum!
  
  It feels a cheat to say I am done with this book because I am still reading it here and there. I have made the squash muchroom bake since writing the first part of my review. Good food.