Customer Reviews
Not just cooking - over 100 recipes with useful basic cooking guides and hints throughout. - By: Amazon Reviewer, 09 Aug 2006 
333 high quality, shiny pages split over 9 chapters:-
Cracking Salads
Cooking Without Heat
Poaching & Boiling
Steaming & Cooking in the Bag
Steaming & Braising
Frying
Roasting, Pot-Roasting & Pan Roasting
Grilling & Char-Grilling
Baking & Sweet Things
plus an introduction with sections entitled:-
Getting Yourself Kitted Out
Shopping Tips
Now it's Your Turn
Finished with a concise Index, showing bold page numbers for illustrated recipes, & red to indicate vegetarian recipes plus JO's trademark `Nice One' thanks list, giving full credit to his wife, following on from his touching opening dedication:-
`To my two great girls, lovely Jools, the best thing that ever happened to me, & little Poppy - the best thing I ever made.'
Colourful photography of JO himself, family, friends, locations, techniques & recipes throughout & interspersed with useful reference sections eg:-
Handy pasta recipe
Risotto recipe
Blanching tomatoes
Grating & peeling
Easy chicken stock
Flavoured salt
Sweet pastry & notes on baking blind
Slicing herbs & leaves/chopping & slicing
Boning a chicken
Making a `cartouche'
Filleting or tranching a flat fish
Filleting a round fish
Tying up a bird
The Perfect Basic Bread Recipe - `this recipe is fantastic for making your own bread at home - give it a go - it is so easy & will give you some great results. The other breads in the chapter alll use this recipe as a base.'
As above, typical JO notes also head up each recipe e.g.:-
Chips
`I'm putting `chips' in the book because if they're cooked properly they're one of the tastiest things in the world. That crunch & fluffy softness inside is absolutely irresistible- especiallly if they're someone else's!
A good chip requires control & vigilance when cooking. Get yourself a nice spud - Maris Piper, Desirée & King Edwards are alll good......................'
Barolo Poached Fillet Steak with Celeriac Purée
`I didn't try poached meat until a couple of years ago & to be honest the idea didn't appeal to me'. A lot of chefs implied that cooking meat in a good red wine was a waste but how wrong they were. As well as 'Barolo', this dish works with many other red wines especiallly nice spicy ones like 'Rioja' or 'Shiraz'. What I'm trying to say is that if you use rubbish wine in cooking it will come back to haunt you in the tasting.'
Favourite recipes:-
The proper French side salad
Pomegranate & gin cocktail
Scalllop spoons
Soft boiled egg with asparagus on toast
Pappardelle with amazing slow cooked meat
Chinese chicken parcels
Moroccan lamb stew
Quick time sausage cassoulet
Chargrilled marinated vegetables
Tender braised leeks with wine & thyme
Italian style confit of duck with roasted radicchio
Unbelievable roast pork with stuffed apples & parsnips - (alll roasted together)
Rosemary stick kebabs
Grilled marinated mozzarella with crunchy bread, smoked bacon & a black olive & lemon dressing
Baked chocolate pudding
Nectarine meringue pie
Surprise pudding
Inside cover quote from `Time Out':-
`The design & photography are clear & luscious & the recipes are the kind you want to try & reallly can make at home.'
Let's begin ... - By: , 22 Oct 2003 
A completely different book from the previous ones. The previous three books are a collection of somehow provocative recipes that twist traditional dishes from Italy & France with some good results. They were a sort of college-friendly cookbooks, but with not much help for the basics.
This book is different. It gives hints & explainations for the basic cooking styles. It helps a beginner to improve his/her skills. It also provides some interesting recipes, which appear to be "cleaner" then in the past.
Buy it if you are a beginner or if you do not own the first two books. But if you look for refined cooking & good culinary tips (and you are able to spot cooking time errors) go for Ramsey's book instead.
Disappointing Book - By: C. Ung, 04 Oct 2003 
I first decided to purchase this book based on 2 reasons, his past books were good & his show Jamies Kitchen on C4 was great, dispite that some of his student chefs were slacking & wasting a good opportunity to change his/her life.
Upon recieving this big & heavy book, I thought this is going to be great, indepth information on his show, the students as well as great recipes.
After reading through the first set of pages, it was quite interesting, but later it was just recipes, & not very good ones to be honest- for a £price book I was expecting much much more. This has been a disappointment, If your wanting information on the show- the only advice is to look elsewhere, if you want recipes then Jamie has some other great books out there.
I would have given this book better marks if it was cheaper.
One great Book - By: Kevin, 25 Jul 2003 
As a chef myself the recipes & pictures are wonderful. I use alll of Jamies books almost everyweek to get ideas for my menus. His food style is awesome & this book reflects it. I special ordered this book from the UK since it is not available in Canada, & I don't regret the extra that I paid for this book. It is his best yet.
Too much fish - By: John P Ellis, 03 May 2003 I have bought the book as i enjoy cooking but dont eat fish. the books contents are over three quaters about fish & recipes using unknown herbs & spices. ihave recently exchaned the book for his previous one.
