Jamie Oliver's new book, Jamie's Kitchen has only been home a few days and it's already a victim of sticky page syndrome. Like its predecessors--The Naked Chef, The Return of the Naked Chef and Happy Days with the Naked Chef--its beautiful photographs are slightly slick with olive oil and the clear layout of recipes is traced across with fingerprints of chilli jam, while crumbs of polenta and splinters of rosemary nestle in the gritty crease of the spine. And that is the best recommendation for any cook book.

Oliver's recipes are truly irresistible and this book might well be his best ever--both in quantity (100 recipes) and quality. The Channel Four series associated with the book will focus on his experience of setting up a restaurant school to turn unemployed kids into professional chefs. While Jamie's Kitchen isn't a course book per se, he takes home cooks through kitchen essentials including poaching, boiling, steaming, stewing, frying, roasting, grilling and baking--all in a no-nonsense style.

He proves to be a terrific pupil of his own culinary education, spun in true-to-form Jamie style by the results of his experiments. He has learnt his lessons well from his time at the River Café with recipes such as spring minestrone, pasta and risottos to dream about and a focus on the quality and seasonality of produce. Rick Stein's style of pedagogy also works very well here with sections on basic chef skills such as chopping, boning and filleting. Jamie also helpfully includes easy recipes to some of the basics of French and Mediterranean cookery such as pesto and aioli. But he's also extended his playful ways with oriental cuisine--tempting us with dim sum delights such as steamed pork buns. He also finds room to skirt the borders of increasingly popular Spanish and Middle Eastern flavours with sweet roasted garlic soup and Lebanese lemon chicken respectively, and makes sure to throw in some dinner party dynamite with headliners such as fresh mackerel cooked in pomegranate, lime juice and tequila, and a baked chocolate pudding that's almost too good to share..

Will you be able to get or give a better cookbook than Jamie's Kitchen? You could try, but we wouldn't bet on it. --Fiona Buckland

2006-08-09 Not just cooking - over 100 recipes with useful basic cooking guides and hints throughout.

333 high quality, shiny pages split over 9 chapters:-

Cracking Salads
Cooking Without Heat
Poaching and Boiling
Steaming & Cooking in the Bag
Steaming & Braising
Frying
Roasting, Pot-Roasting & Pan Roasting
Grilling & Char-Grilling
Baking & Sweet Things

plus an introduction with sections entitled:-

Getting Yourself Kitted Out
Shopping Tips
Now it's Your Turn

Finished with a concise Index, showing bold page numbers for illustrated recipes, and red to indicate vegetarian recipes plus JO's trademark `Nice One' thanks list, giving full credit to his wife, following on from his touching opening dedication:-

`To my two great girls, lovely Jools, the best thing that ever happened to me, and little Poppy - the best thing I ever made.'

Colourful photography of JO himself, family, friends, locations, techniques and recipes throughout and interspersed with useful reference sections eg:-

Handy pasta recipe
Risotto recipe
Blanching tomatoes
Grating and peeling
Easy chicken stock
Flavoured salt
Sweet pastry and notes on baking blind
Slicing herbs and leaves/chopping and slicing
Boning a chicken
Making a `cartouche'
Filleting or tranching a flat fish
Filleting a round fish
Tying up a bird
The Perfect Basic Bread Recipe - `this recipe is fantastic for making your own bread at home - give it a go - it is so easy and will give you some great results. The other breads in the chapter all use this recipe as a base.'

As above, typical JO notes also head up each recipe e.g.:-

Chips
`I'm putting `chips' in the book because if they're cooked properly they're one of the tastiest things in the world. That crunch and fluffy softness inside is absolutely irresistible- especially if they're someone else's!
A good chip requires control and vigilance when cooking. Get yourself a nice spud - Maris Piper, Desirée and King Edwards are all good......................'

Barolo Poached Fillet Steak with Celeriac Purée
`I didn't try poached meat until a couple of years ago and to be honest the idea didn't appeal to me'. A lot of chefs implied that cooking meat in a good red wine was a waste but how wrong they were. As well as 'Barolo', this dish works with many other red wines especially nice spicy ones like 'Rioja' or 'Shiraz'. What I'm trying to say is that if you use rubbish wine in cooking it will come back to haunt you in the tasting.'

Favourite recipes:-
The proper French side salad
Pomegranate and gin cocktail
Scallop spoons
Soft boiled egg with asparagus on toast
Pappardelle with amazing slow cooked meat
Chinese chicken parcels
Moroccan lamb stew
Quick time sausage cassoulet
Chargrilled marinated vegetables
Tender braised leeks with wine and thyme
Italian style confit of duck with roasted radicchio
Unbelievable roast pork with stuffed apples and parsnips - (all roasted together)
Rosemary stick kebabs
Grilled marinated mozzarella with crunchy bread, smoked bacon and a black olive & lemon dressing
Baked chocolate pudding
Nectarine meringue pie
Surprise pudding

Inside cover quote from `Time Out':-
`The design and photography are clear and luscious and the recipes are the kind you want to try and really can make at home.'