Nigella Lawson: "Sometimes I do get the urge to remind people of some past deliciousness"


'Nigella: At My Table'

'Nigella: At My Table' - a six-part series - begins on BBC2 at the end of October, 2017.

Nigella: At My Table is a delicious celebration of home cooking - food that makes people feel happy and welcome as they sit around your table.

In her latest series, Nigella shares the food she cooks for family and friends. Whether offering up her fresh take on familiar classics, or creating new dishes inspired by different cuisines, Nigella ensures that everyday eating is always pleasurable, with a minimum of fuss.

Creating dishes as mouth-watering and inventive as ever, Nigella shares her special shortcuts that make life easier without sacrificing taste, allowing you more precious time with family and friends at your table.

For Nigella, a table is more than a piece of furniture, just as food is more than mere fuel. This series celebrates the food we eat at the end of a long day, with friends at weekend feasts, or making memories with family.

As always Nigella’s food is vibrant and varied, but always relaxed - mixing old favourites with fresh discoveries, bringing something new to everyday eating, but always providing the comforting and welcoming taste of home.

Q&A WITH NIGELLA:

Can you tell us anything about the series, and what makes it different to previous series?

It is always essential to me is to be able to share the food I love, show how it is cooked, say what it means to me, and just speak from the heart. I’m not scripted and I’m not a presenter any more than I’m a chef: I cook in the way I cook, and I talk the way I talk; I have no other way of doing it! But I do feel that in this series, I’ve really been able to talk - to chat, really - about where these recipes come from, and why they are such an important part of my life and home, as well as show how straightforward, simple and joyous they are to cook. This series really is about bringing the food from my table to yours. And I’m very excited as well for you to see the re-done kitchen!

What’s one ingredient you can’t do without?

That’s too hard to answer! I feel it’s impossible to settle on just one. So I’ll be greedy and choose three, I’m afraid. For me, the basic essentials are olive oil, lemons – I use the zest as well as the juice in my cooking all the time, in sweet and savoury dishes - and good sea salt flakes, which again I use in sweet as well as savoury cooking. Over-salting can be catastrophic in cooking, I know, but under-salting is not the answer!

Who are your ideal dinner party guests to have at your table?

I don’t want anyone at my table that I don’t feel comfy with: I want old friends and family and people who like eating. But then, I’m not a formal dinner party sort of person.

What’s the classic dish to serve with friends that never fails?

Roast Chicken with roast or mashed potatoes, peas, leeks and a big salad is always a favourite on my table. But for friends who are vegan or vegetarian I’m always ready with an aromatic vegetable curry. And I have to make one to eat at least once a week myself anyway.

What do you love most about British cuisine?

I love its variety, and the wide scope of the influences that have fed into it. I do have a particular fondness, it’s true, for traditional baking - there is a Queen of Puddings in the series, for example - but I also love the spicier end of the spectrum. And what’s important to me is that British Cuisine is very much the story of home cooking: it’s not a classical cuisine emanating from men in toques!

What do you enjoy about fusing different cultures into food?

Bringing the flavours and ingredients of other food cultures makes me think of the food I habitually cook in a different way, and it brings new life into the kitchen. So often, it helps me find shortcuts to deeper flavour. Most of all, it inspires me. And it’s very liberating.

What’s your favourite undiscovered ingredient that we should use more of?

I don’t know if I believe in ‘shoulds’ but I only fairly recently found fresh turmeric in my local supermarket (which I know is lucky) and I love cooking with it. I still do use ground turmeric, but there is a beautiful citrussy and almost floral freshness as well as earthy pungency to fresh turmeric. I’ve got a couple of recipes in the new series that celebrate it and can’t wait to share them.

What do you think of recent food trends - in the series you reference the use of spiralised veg instead of pasta - soya milk, clean eating?

I never pay much attention to food fads, although I do believe it is possible to take inspiration anywhere. For me, the thing is to add to my repertoire not restrict it. I cook as I eat: I believe in balance, and enjoying as much, not as little, as possible!

How do you think home cooking compares to the likes of restaurant home delivery services? Why should people continue home cooking?

I don’t know that I’d think of comparing them. They are different, just as going to a restaurant is different from eating at home. Everyone should do what suits them, makes their life easier and happier day to day.

Are there any food that aren’t fashionable anymore that you still love?

I don’t care if food is fashionable or not as long as it tastes good! It’s such a pity if a dish falls out of favour because of fashion, but then again, the upside to this is the joy of rediscovery. So yes, sometimes I do get the urge to remind people of some past deliciousness, and I have to say Devilled Eggs are a case in point. Whenever I make them people always seem surprised at first to see them - and then they just cannot stop eating them.

'Nigella: At My Table', a six-part series, begins on BBC2 at the end of October. The first episode starts on Monday, October 30, on BBC Two at 8.30pm.

October 24, 2017 12:46pm ET by BBC TWO  

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