Lovely Juvely, Munchy Crunchy
Food makes us talk like love-drunk fools
One of my all-time favorite food personalities is the UK’s Nigella Lawson. Often criticized, usually by chefs and professional, especially in the early days, for her very simple almost-recipes, she has become a lasting influence on food writing, food talking and the culture of eating — hard-nosed chefs have found themselves changing the way they present their recipes, perhaps without even realizing it.
Nigella gave us permission to enjoy food. It wasn’t all about the rare ingredients and viciously complicated cooking techniques for her. It was about the taste. Deliciousness, enjoyment of every mouthful, and getting the food in an eatable condition as quickly as possible — these comprised her philosophy.
She ate her food right there at the kitchen bench and my, did she relish each mouthful! Plenty of other TV chefs did this, and do this, but Nigella gave them (and us) permission to really show our joy.
There’s something about food that turns us all into poets.
I just love listening to the way Nigella uses her formidable grasp of English to bring her viewers into the experience. In one episode, she describes ‘the pavlova’s billowy base’ and you can almost feel it. As she scoops her meringue base onto her prepared…
