Customer Reviews
Charming! - By: Richard Madgin, 04 Dec 2008 
I think I loved everything about this book. From the moment you hold it you can feel the care takenin achieving a high quality product. It's a robust feeling hardback & has a nice weight for a book of its size. The format is also interesting with recipes & charmind illustrations thrownin between tales of life experiences & musings all of which are interesting as well as funny to read.
The recipes are not an asidein this book either... they appear to be of a high calibre. I've already made the "Chicken Teriyaki with Rice & Spinach" from pg 195 which was a great success. Yum. I'm looking forward to making "Pine Nut Ice Cream" one of these days too.
As an alternative to standard cookbooks this is great. It would make a fantastic gift for any inspired cooksin your life... or even those that need to be inspired. :)
Delicious - By: Dinky, 01 Dec 2008 
Recipes are dotted around Daisy Garnett's varied experiences of life, food, friendship, & cooking & acknowledge eating's connections with life beyond the basic function of fuel: sustenance, joy, love, companionship, comfort, learning, living. The colourful Daisy's stories chart, I think, her growing up & parallel her gradual maturityin cooking. The recipes themselves & Garnett's matter-of-fact, this-is-what-I-found presentation (plus advice on equipment when relevant) invite the reader to have a goin the kitchen. What a difference from the tried-and-thrice-tested, list-dry format of the usual cookbooks -- though I wouldn't deny that each has its placein the cook's library.
The only disadvantage to this book is reading it on the train -- for it's the kind of book that will make you forget the drudgery of the daily commute, especiallyin these dark winter days -- & enjoying Daisy's adventures then coming to a recipe that immediately calls you to the kitchen. Just as you get to your stop for work! An enjoyable (cook)book.
A different kind of cookbook - By: Gary Nicklin, 01 Dec 2008 My shelves are full of cookbooks, but it's very rare that I read one from start to finish. Cooking Lessons is a bit differentin that it is the story of Daisy Garnett's journey from thinking that food is just something to keep the energy levels up to becoming absolutely passionate about food, both cooking & eating.
It's quite wittily written & very easy to read. Some of it, such as when she is sailing to Europe, isin the form of a diary, others are more autobiographical prose. Scattered thoughout the book are various recipes that Daisy has cooked or had cooked for her, some of which are her favourites from other cookbooks (all notedin case you are inspired to investigate further) some that are cooked by family, friends or the various housekeepers that came & went as she was growing up.
The recipes range from simple dishes that she prepared from the various ingredients foundin the galley of the boat she was sailing on as she tried to use ingredients before they went off, to more exotic dishes - all with anecdotes & instructions, even down to the kind of bowl you "must" have to make the chocolate souffle.
I haven't cooked anything from the book as yet, but I'm definitely going to keep it to hand.
Enjoyable Reading For Anyone Who Loves To Cook - By: B. Tam, 30 Nov 2008 I really enjoyed reading this book. The author describes her journey to discovering her love of cooking starting from when she was on a boat, sailing across the Atlantic with four men & elected to do the cooking & her attempt to roast a chicken - something she had never done before. She describes her first cooking experiences & how over time, & perseverance, she learnt to love the art of cooking.
The book is filled with recipes, hints & tips that Daisy Garnett has discovered over the years. This book is a wonderful book to give to any food lover with a passion for cooking & experimentingin the kitchen. The style of the book is modest, with lots of lovely quirky illustrations, but not of unnecessarily artistic, but impossible to achieve presentation plates of food. The author writes passionately about food, but also writes about the practicalities of cooking & how every cook secretly also has a load of kitchen gadgets - some very expensive & unless & others that are used constantly.
The book gives you lots of ideas as well as recipes to try such as Lemon Pound Cake & Ham Cooked In Cola. The recipes are randomly scattered throughout the book & follows different themes throughout the book of family get-togethers, when the author livedin New York & London & when she was on the boat, however you can look up the recipesin the index. If you like books by Nigel Slater, this is a book worth reading.
A book of wisdom - By: Mr. F. L. Dunkin Wedd, 28 Nov 2008 Yes - it has recipesin it. Yes - it's about food. But this is a book about so much more, interpreted through the medium of food.
It is full of Garnett's warmth & wisdom: the feelings that food gives us; the binding it makes between family & friends; the creative satisfaction of the cook; the joy of giving pleasure; & the obsessiveness that is close to the surfacein most of us.
I probably won't do many of the recipes. They tend to be a bit overcomplicated for me, requiring special ingredients to be bought in, & I'm not that kind of cook. I'm more a kind of "grab what's there, throw itin a pan, & make something smashing quick" person. But I shall have great pleasure dipping into the lovely prose, as if it were a sort of winter broth, finding delicious gobbets.
The recipes look great though, & if you fancy experimenting with something more special than I do, will suit you well, no doubt.
In any case, you will like it if you like food & cooking - & especially if you feel stressed: it's a book of Zen-like calm.
Just one caveat - but it's almost a deal-breaker. If detail is so important (quite right - olive oil does NOT make good mayo), how come the book is so full of spelling mistakes?
Walter de la Mer was quite charmingin its way, & Helmet Lang downright funny. But loose for lose (multiple offences), administer for minister, draft for draught, Province for Provence, fushiony for fusion-y, forteen & so forth just make Garnett look stupid - which she very clearly is not.
Shoot the editor! Shame that such a lovely lovely book has been short-changedin this way.
