How to Use Spices, Seasonings and Sauce Techniques to Transform Recipes

If you have any interest at all in fine food and dining, then you’ve probably heard of Nigella Lawson. This beautiful British chef is an international celebrity who’s been making a name for herself for many years now. She’s the bestselling author of eight books which, altogether, have sold more than six million copies around the world. She has a high-profile cooking show on the Food Network, and she even has her own iPhone app.

Nigella Lawson’s most famous recipes

At the same time, Nigella stands apart from other celebrity chefs. Unlike some of the chefs you might see on TV, Nigella Lawson isn’t the least bit fussy, finicky, or pretentious. Her food rarely involves hard-to-find ingredients or trendy new techniques. Instead, her recipes focus on big, satisfying flavors and the kinds of robust meals that are perfectly suited to a family feast. She’s especially interested in traditional British home cooking and, of course, in the classics of French cuisine. Over all, Nigella’s style is warm, welcoming, and down to earth. Her fans might call her a “domestic goddess,” but Nigella never takes herself too seriously, and she never hesitates to laugh at herself. That might be why she’s such a popular figure and a household name.

Where is Nigella Lawson from?

Nigella was born on January 6, 1960 in Wandsworth, an affluent suburb in southern London. She was the daughter of Nigel Lawson, a conservative politician. Her mother, Vanessa, actually had connections to the food business; Vanessa’s family owned the famous J. Lyons and Co. food and catering company. So in a sense, Nigella was born into a family that cared about the finer things in life, especially good food and drinks.

Nigella attended Oxford University, where she studied Modern Languages. Years later, she confided to a journalist at the Oxford Mail that some of her best memories from her university days were centered around food. Nigella reminisced about eating Malaysian food at a local restaurant, and shopping for ingredients at Oxford’s Covered Market, and then coming back to her kitchen to make a batch of French onion soup. She admitted that she “would go into people’s rooms and steal whatever liquor or bits of cheese they had to go in the onion soup – Benedictine I had to use once. That’s when I realized I was someone who liked feeding people, which I enjoyed, although it wasn’t such an eating-out culture as it is now.”.

Today, a portrait of Nigella hangs in one of the colleges at Oxford University as an inspiration to today’s students. Authorities said that they had hung up the portrait female students who have “led lives of distinction,” because they might serve as role models for the young women studying at Oxford today.

Nigella Lawson’s own family

In 1986, Nigella married the journalist John Diamond. The two met when they both worked for the Times of London, and were, by all accounts, a very happy couple. They were together until Diamond’s untimely death, from throat cancer, in 2001. Diamond’s last words were spoken about his beloved wife. “How proud I am of you and what you have become,” he told her. The couple had two children: a daughter, Cosima, and a son, Bruno.

Several years later, the widowed Nigella fell in love with Charles Saatchi, a wealthy international art dealer. That marriage involved a lot of turmoil. Nigella accused Saatchi of emotionally abusing her; she said that he was controlling and that he subjected her to “intimate terrorism.” The couple eventually got divorced.