Nigella Returns

Two decades ago Nigella Lawson was the "it" girl of cooking. She was the aristocrat who brought home style cooking to both British and American kitchens. Then she disappeared off the culinary horizon, due to personal problems. Thankfully she is back with the same homeyness as before.

Ms Lawson was the subject of the main article in today's New York Times Food section. Besha Rodell, a James Beard Award winning writer  conducted an interview with the woman who coined the phrase "Domestic Goddess". The reissue comes during the twentieth anniversary of her globally successful cookbook "How To Eat." The book is out again in a special anniversary edition along with an audio book, narrated by Ms. Lawson. She is revered like royalty by some in Britain and Australia where she's attending a food festival in the western part of the country.The detractors think she nothing more than a spoiled aristocrat, the daughter of Chancellor of the Exchequer , Nigel Lawson. She came from money, her mother is descended from the family who created J Lyons And Company, the first food conglomerate in the world. She worked at Britain's The Spectator and The Sunday Times before she became a food writer.It's seen in "How To Eat". written in mostly narrative form, in the tone of a newspaper columnist. her voice is intimate  warm and chatty .her musings, were unusual at the time as she mentions memories of cooking with other people, including her sister , Thomasina.

 Like many food personalities and chefs, she was a revolutionary bringing new products and tastes to ordinary kitchens, Thanks to her,quinoa ,avocados and pomegranates are now kitchen staples. her ideas of cooking and writing about what she was cooking was also ground breaking. It was cooking to please yourself instead of flexing culinary muscles to impress others.(the article comes with a palate pleasing easy to make beef tenderloin with red wine, garlic and anchovy recipe.) She urged home chefs to think how the food tastes to them, and not to the guests. As Bee Wilson, another British food writer, and her friend, Ms Lawson felt that a comforting bowl of stew could be much be better than an elaborate  chef creation.It is a constant idea with her. Food should be as much a joy for the cook as it is for the eater. Recipes are malleable and there should be no stress and anxiety when cooking them for it ruins he appetite. Never think you're going to produce the definitive meal like a Sunday lunch..Make a lunch you want to make, she writes in the chapter on weekend lunches. Strange though that she doesn't have a definitive plan for her future. She doesn't know how she comes up with recipe books. There are no plots or plans. It's just anxiety that drives her.

Does it matter what drives Nigella Lawson? No. If anything she can rest on her laurels thanks to her evergreen of a cookbook, How To Eat.It is a brilliant classic that will inspire new generations of home chefs