Have we had a 'Tara Ramsay's cookbook is useless' rant yet?

[PeatBog]

... or can I vent?

Also the book looks like it was printed circa 1972.

I don't rate her books at all.
Now Nigella Express has been well used and has got me back into cooking more as had got into rather a rut lately (blame ds's incredible fussiness). Couldn't bear watching her in the latest series apart from with horror at how self-aware and ott she was. But the book rocks.

Nigella's tv very quickly became a parody, but books are good because they are properly edited

Do you think so PeatBog? I thought Nigella's earlier books had so many mistakes in she was forced to put a special section on her website correcting the mistakes. Hopefully by now they should have sorted this out (in later editions of earlier books and in the new one) but I still find her frustratingly unreliable (my mustard sauce split the other week!).
IME Nigella is great because she knows about food and loves it and writes really well.

(sorry, IMO not IME!)

I have the paperback eds of her earlier ones and they've been fine, but perhaps you're right about the first eds.

See also River Cafe Cookbooks, though they always claim that if you use exactly what they list in the recipe they should always work (but difficult if you can't get the exact single estate olive oil they specify!)

Ho hum. Nigel Slater is also fab for the same reason, clearly loves food more than anything (and perhaps more than his cats)

One criticism I have of the lovely N is that she does tend to add too much sugar. But I have a habit, with all cook books, of noting (defacing) on the book what I reckon went wrong (too much sugar/too much/too little fluid).

yes, me too. Essential and shows how well-used and loved many of my books are. Although there's a limit: my copy of Tana blardy Ramsay is covered in scribbles but is also in the bin

The only recipe I saw from Tana was one she did a long time ago in the Sunday Times, which involved pasta with double cream and mushrooms. I thought I wouldn't be paying good money to learn more of the same. Boring.

That said, she does not hold herself out to have any cooking credentials beyond that of a mother. Just not sure why I would pay for anything from her, when I can get it free on mn and better!

my excuse for buying it was a rush of blood to head due to winning book tokens in Christmas raffle -- so even though I didn't 'pay' anything for it, it's annoying to have wasted them

I might put up a bad review on amazon to make myself feel better.

Please note - before buying cook book go armed with pencil and paper to book shop stand in corner and write out one recipe, then take home and cook it. If the dish turns out rubbish do not return to book shop and buy book. If the recipy is wolfed down by entire family and seconds demanded then run back to town and purchase cook book.

I tryed the mango chicken thingy that Mrs Ramsey said was wonderful etc etc - my children who will scoff any thing placed on a plate forced themsleves to eat it and I promised never to make it again.

I made the orange chicken thing in the most recent book. It was so bad that DH took a pencil and wrote all over the book. "Do not make this again. It tastes like s*"
Have not attempted anything else. Might try some of the breads. Can she get bread wrong?

I can follow a Gordon Ramsey recipe and it nearly always tastes pretty good, but I've yet to try a Jamie Oliver recipe that's not disappointing in relation to either the cost of the blooming ingredients or the time it's taken - is it just me?

Can't say I'm overly impressed by Nigella's latest either which dh thought would make a suitable Xmas present ; there's nothing in there that I actually want to cook.

Tell me I'm wrong about Jamie & Nigella!

Jamie's recipes NEVER come out well. Nigella- I like.

Here's the section on Nigella's website that gives all the corrections.

(but I love her anyway, despite the most recent programme - as others have said, she and Nigel Slater always sound as if they really love their food).

I haven't seen TR mango chicken recipe but I am sure it isn't better than mine.

Just seen NL's corrections. |explains why my muffins weren't perfect!

Oh god! Have remembered the most revolting chicken and banana thing from a Jamie Oliver book (Maryland chicken?). Was hideous hideous hideous. Makes me feel queasy just thinking about it.
Bloody huge quantities of sweetcorn, bananas and chicken just for it to turn into a stomach churning banana, chicken, sweetcorn stew. Bleeuurgh.

I did a Jamie pudding once and he had me faffing about doing all sorts of things standing on my head and opening the oven door with only a red cloth etc - when the pudding finally arrived I realised it was an old favourite by another lady cook which could be made in a simple manner in a few minutes and bunged in the oven.

I have never bothered again with his recipe for anything incase I have to pick my nose naked

doesnt tana edit the food bit in grazia? which i like mag and food section.
i have the book and like it. so there.

Fuckers

I would be extremely surprised if Tana Ramsay had anything to do with that excuse for a food page in Grazia and I don't think that she does lend her name to it anymore.

Biography
Tana Ramsay, author of the bestselling Tana Ramsay's Family Kitchen, is the glamorous, down-to-earth and extremely personable wife of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. As the hands-on mother of their four young children, Megan (9), Jack and Holly (6) and Matilda (4), she is the bulwark of the Ramsay family. As well as cooking for and looking after Gordon and the children, Tana is also the food editor of Grazia magazine, the presenter of a new stylish food show on UKTV sponsored by Waitrose, and a former Montessori teacher

A lot of 'celebity' columnists don't actually write their columns..............