Product Description

Bestselling author and TV chef Rachel Allen is back with a celebration of favourite foods for making memories. Ever feel rapture over a pudding? Fall in love over a romantic meal? Can you remember the smell of baking in your grandmother's kitchen? Food has the power to conjure up many emotions -- it can make us feel happy or energetic, nostalgic or loved. Cooking and enjoying great food with others is part of how we relish life and in her new book, Rachel Allen provides the mouth-watering recipes to help you do just that. Rachel explores the foods that stir these wonderful feelings. She provides inspiring and easy-to-achieve suggestions for all kinds of occasions whether you want to make an indulgent celebratory meal for someone special, create memories with your kids, or need a little healthy boost or a sneaky treat! This is the food that will make you smile. Cooking and enjoying great food with others is how we relish life and in this book to accompany her new TV series, Rachel Allen provides the mouth watering recipes that make and conjure up memories.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1795 in Books
• Brand: Books
• Published on: 2007-09-03
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Amazon.co.uk
It's a jungle out there. With the number of TV chefs vying for our attention (along with all their attendant books), we really need to hack our way through the foliage to discover those worthy of our attention. With Rachel's Food for Living, Rachel Allen moves effortlessly to the top of the pile, and this book (which accompanies a 13-part BBC prime-time series) does full justice to its video version. What distinguishes Rachel Allen from so many other chefs is the way in which she appreciates that food must be integrated into our lives, rather than just being fuel or a way of showing off our culinary skills. As Allen points out, food can be restorative, nurturing and emotionally fulfilling, even apart from its tastiness. As she reminds us, the ritual of eating may be formalised or spontaneous, and the appreciation of the way in which we can approach food in different ways is very much at the heart of Rachel's Food for Living

But if all of the above sounds a little forbidding, it should be noted that the book here functions admirably as a guide to the best available food -- and leaving aside any philosophical underpinnings, there are over 100 delicious recipes included here, from Perfect Lamb Stew and Chicken with Lemon and Honey to Banana and Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding. The recipes are presented in as user-friendly a fashion as possible, with full-page illustrations showing us just what we can aspire to in our own kitchens. When Allen says this book is filled with foods which have special meaning for her, her family and friends, it makes clear the personal nature of the recipes on offer here. But (in the end) such things don't matter: on a strictly utilitarian level, Rachel's Food for Living really delivers the goods. --Barry Forshaw

Somerfield Magazine
`Rachel's passion for her subject is infectious.'

Ulster Tatler, Nov 06
"Rachel's recipes inject light-hearted fun back into the art of cooking"

Customer Reviews

Reliable
I now own two of Rachel Allen's books and have tried many of the recipes from each (Food for Living & Food for Friends), they have worked every time and are very reliable and easy to make. At last a 'proper' cookbook and Rachel seems to be a very likeable person - well done.

absolutely invaluable!
this is such a fab recipe book! i got it for xmas and i use it alot. so far have made the spanish chorizo (used veggie sausage instead) and chickpea soup, blue cheese potato and leek soup (which is so gorgeous), heart shaped toast with egg and the cheesy soda bread, and some of the smoothies! they all turned out really well. i can't wait to make so many different things and next on my list is the chocolate and banana bread and butter pud! the book is written in such a simple and lovely way and is not pretencious atall. it also has great illustrations and feels very good quality. i particularly like the different sections such as food for the soul and the lazy sundays section, as there is something for any occasion. i would DEFINITELY recommend this!

Personable and practical
Rachel Allen presents a lot of these recipes on Saturday mornings on BBC1 and extremely good they are too - varied, easy to follow and in possession of an ambience from a time gone by yet somehow modern at the same time - witness her seeds and honey bread recipe. Elements of the traditional and modern combine perfectly. Allen's prawn pate is delicious (believe me!) as are her white chocolate buns and her tips on ways to embellish a simple roast chicken dish are useful (not ground-breaking in any way, but tempting to try with the minimum of fuss or expense). Her lasagne is, as she admits herself a basic enough dish, but she adds just a few things to it in pureed onion, carrot and celery that make it absolutely delicious. I did it last weekend and it was truly wonderful. Her flapjacks are tantalising, as is her pork and mushroom pie. As for the chicken Kiev - best I have ever tasted !

Rachel Allen has an easy-going style devoid of pretension and posturing, yet simultaneously exuding class and culture, not an easy thing to do.