Nigella Lawson celebrates home cooking

It’s always a delight to hear from our favorite authors, especially those as charming as Nigella Lawson. Recently she sat down with Francis Lam of The Splendid Table to discuss several topics ranging from the definition of a pudding to her life in food to her views on home cooking.

Part of the reason Nigella has remained popular in over 20 years of cookbook writing and cooking shows is that she connects with home cooks in a way that celebrity chefs can’t seem to match. She embraces her defects and acknowledges her weaknesses. When discussing knife skills, for example, Nigella is honest about her abilities. “I call myself clumsy. I am very badly coordinated and when I get nervous I’m worse,” she says. “I don’t have that wonderful virtuoso skill where people chop amazingly fast; I don’t give a performance. But when I have people around for supper it doesn’t matter if I take three minutes longer per carrot.”

Nigella has long been a champion of home cooks and her ability to relate to them helps encourage them to cook more. If you are only watching TV chefs in cooking competitions chop onions in a dazzling display of deft movements, you might feel intimidated rather than inspired. “It’s been a disincentive for cooks because they have felt that they’re lesser beings if they can’t present their food as beautiful as a chef,” she notes. Instead, she would rather encourage someone to focus less on their onion-chopping skills and more on the joy of sharing a delicious meal with friends and family. Read more of this fascinating interview, where Nigella also discusses telling stories through recipes, at The Splendid Table.