Jamie's Italy

I am a huge fan of Jamie Oliver, his recipes are easy to follow and taste delicious!

I have been following Jamie since his beginning and was delighted to find "Jamie's Italy" The stories, photos and the people he met coupled with the Italian recipe's just made this purchase more "delightful" and enchanting. Love it! Get the hard cover copy if you can.

Right from the start, the look and feel of this book is enticing. It is a pleasingly heavy and sturdy cookbook that can take the punishment of being propped open on the kitchen bench while following a recipe. The pages of the book are littered with photographs, and enhance - in the most delightful way - the recipes. Closeups of prepared meals, lush Italian landscapes, and portraits of Jamie and assorted local folk performing their daily ministrations. None of these things would amount to much, however, if the recipes did not deliver. The bonus is that they do more than just deliver. They inspire. This book has become - for me - a reliable *go-to* book for daily inspiration. I can go from boredom to captivated in less than 5 seconds and before I know it I have my mortar and pestle out and am transporting simple ingredients into a sensory masterpiece such as Jamie's pesto recipe (p132). It is simple, delicious and reliable, like just about everything else in his book. There are numerous recipes that seem so modest that they are somewhat overlooked at first glance. The "pasta e ceci" (p76) is - for me -one of these recipes. I discovered this hidden bombshell on a day that I otherwise thought I had nothing in the cupboard to work with. This dish has now become a standard in our house. Jamie Oliver is a delightful personality on the screen and he translates that enthusiasm into his recipes which are all delicious, solid, simple and - best of all - affordable. That's what makes this book perfect for a daily reference. His devotion to his belief that there is a tasty homemade meal waiting to be cooked in any kitchen drives this cookbook. In it he will teach you to look at cupboard and fridge items with fresh eyes, infuse them with flavour in ingenious ways, and offer his culinary advice in such accessible fashion that the experience of attempting just one recipe from this book will make you - dare I say - a happier person. Get it. You'll love it.

I'm a big fan of Jamie Oliver and his cookbooks. I have several. This one did not disappointment me although I held off buying it for several months because I love Italian food and wasn't sure Jamie would be up to it. He spent several months travelling and cooking in Italy and it shows. The book again highights his sense of humor and love of cooking. The photography is great and his fun attitude shines through the entire book. I've read the book cover to cover and cooked 6-7 recipes. All are easy to understand and produce excellent results. This guy can cook and write. If you like Jamie or Italian cooking this is an excellent book. I especially recommend the following recipes: Peposo (hunter's peppery beef stew). I used mine over pasta and it was a hit. His roasted squash is excellent as is his stuffed leg of lamb. I look forward to using more of his recipes and have recommended it to my cooking friends.

`jamie's italy' (sic) by `The Naked Chef', Jamie Oliver tops, for me, all of his earlier books, especially in that magical quality which only Oliver, of all the cookbook authors I've read, seems to have in abundance. That may be just a bit heavy on the hyperbole, since all the leading English culinary writers, the heirs of Elizabeth David, such as Nigel Slater, Nigella Lawson, and Tamasin Day-Lewis all seem to communicate a `joie de vivre' which seems to be rare to non-existent in even the best Yankee culinary writers. I'm especially delighted to see his nibs even give a bow to Elizabeth David in his dedication. The book reaffirms my earlier comparison of Oliver and Robin Williams, versus lets say, Susan Spungen and Dan Aykroyd. While Aykroyd is a very talented comedian, Robin Williams is a force of nature. Similarly, while Ms. Spungen's first book will probably win a James Beard award (it is nominated), Oliver's books grab you by the heart and never let go from first page to last. I will even go so far as to say Oliver's book is superior as a first Italian cookbook than the eminent Mario Batali, Lydia Bastianich, or certainly Giada De Laurentiis. In fact, this book validates my giving Giada's books only four stars, as a rather thin, albeit `easy' presentation of familiar Italian dishes. The book is certainly an even more genuine and personal chronicle of experiences with Italian food than Mario Batali's `travelogue' book, `Simple Italian Food, Recipes from My Two Villages', not to mention the rather detached and sterile reporting of Italian regional cooking by Mary Ann Esposito of the PBS `Ciao, Italia' series. All recipes appear to have been personally discovered by Oliver `in vivo', mostly in southern Italy, including Sicily and the islands off Sicily. All my gushing over Oliver's greathearted embrace of Italian life should not hide the facts that Oliver is a hugely talented chef AND the dishes he translates for us are almost all genuine originals. While one will always find strong family resemblences between the fish and pasta and crostini and brodo recipes in all Italian cookbooks, Oliver has managed to push the envelope just a bit further and track down recipes which are certainly unfamiliar to my eyes, which have seen at least 50 Italian and Italian-influenced cookbooks over the last three years. One of my favorites is the recipe for `sushi del chianti', a speciality of `celebrity butcher' Dario Ceccini, one of the stars of Bill Buford's book, `Heat'. This is a Tuscan steak tartare, done with chili, orange zest, and marjoram. I am generally not a big fan of cookbook photography, but I make a huge exception for this volume. There is an equal measure of snaps made of prepared dishes and of his nibs chatting it up or mugging with the local populace. After having seen books filled personality-centered pics of, for example, Giada or Ted Allen, I'm pleased to find a book which does this self-serving practice right. And, Italian landscapes i

As someone who has been a Jamie Oliver fan since Day 1, it has been delightful to watch him grow up and mature over the years. I own all of his cookbooks, and a few of his cooking DVDs. Wish all of them were available here in the US. This book is just wonderful. The photographs are fantastic. The stories that accompany the recipes are so friendly and inviting that you feel you're standing there talking with everyone. This is the kind of cookbook you pass down to your kids. It's a treasure in every respect. Speaking of recipes, he really has traveled all over Italy, to every nook and cranny, to find delightful, fresh and unique recipes that you haven't seen before in other 'Italian' cookbooks. He covers: Antipasti, street food, pizza, soups, pastas, risotto, salads, main courses, fish, meat, side dishes, and deserts. The book is a staggering 307 pages, and it's just full of Italian food. Everything from mixed, roasted vegetables to roasted sole three ways, to sausages with green lentils, to lamb kabobs, fried zucchini, fig tart, and so many recipes your head will swim and your senses will go on overload. With this extraordinary book, Jamie Oliver shows the world why he has such staying power in the 'food biz' and why millions of people world-wide adore him. I'm old enough to be his mum (my daughter is a year older than he is), but I've got a real soft spot for the lad. He has paid his dues, worked very, very hard, hasn't let fame change who he is. This Italian cookbook is a joy in every way. What a wonderful holiday gift this would be for anyone you love. Thank you, Jamie! It's a beautiful book.

My friend from Germany brought me a copy of this book in June of this year (I didn't even realize until recently that it's not out in the U.S. yet...)But if you love a delicious home-cooked Italian meal, this is one of the most accessible books out there. And the recipes I've tried make up beautifully. I love Jamie's commitment to fresh, local ingredients, his writing in each section and the layout of the book. So many great recipes (even a quick tiramisu!) and they are arranged with pics of the food, of Jamie, and of some really fabulous Italian cooks he met on his travels. from Antipasti to Street Food to Salads, Soups, Risotto, Main Courses and Dessert, it's got everything I need...I especially love the pizzas and the white risotto. I can't wait to watch the show on Travel Channel!