Nigella

Nigella - Fridge Magnate

Nigella Lawson poses for her first ever fashion shoot, and talks
exclusively to William Sitwell about how to come through the hectic Christmas
period with one's reputation as a domestic goddess intact. Recipes by Nigella
Lawson.

My ear is a mere centimetre away from the lips of Nigella Lawson. "Listen,"
she whispers, "you can hear it squeaking." Has the great lady swallowed a mouse,
you ask? No. She's simply eating Halloumi. And I can testify that this Greek
hard cheese, dry-fried and, incidentally, sprinkled with olive oil and fresh red
chilli, does indeed squeak when you chew it.

Having removed my ear from the vicinity of the aforementioned pout, I
guzzle a slice of the salty white cheese till it squeaks no more.

It's almost impossible to talk to the 43-year-old domestic goddess, TV star
and food writer on an empty stomach because of the way she describes food. Her
honest, natural, emotional approach to the subject leaves one drooling.
Fortunately, she's just rustled up some brow-nies so I'm able to gorge myself as
she speaks.

We're chatting as Nigella cooks some simple food that she suggests we dish
up over the holidays. Spiced nuts inspired by a New York restaurant, the
Halloumi, some tasty sea bass, the brownies and some mini-pavlovas. Christmas,
she believes, calls for military-type planning. Organise a clear framework of
meals, drinks and nibbles, and you might just survive the pressure.

"It's like life in general," she explains. "It's good to have a plan but
you do need to be prepared to go off-piste."

In fact, we'd gone a little off-piste that morning when Nigella had posed
for our fashion shoot, something, she admits, she wouldn't normally consider. "I
would never volunteer myself for fashion," she reflects.

In fact, this was her first proper fashion shoot. But you could have fooled
me. She emerged from make-up in each new costume looking full of swagger.
Nigella posing by the hob in a Vivienne Westwood bodice and a pair of
Mari-golds? Easy. Nigella in an afro? No problem.

"It was surprisingly fun," she says afterwards. "John [her late husband]
always used to say that I was a gay man trapped inside a woman's body. Dressing
up is like being a child again and if you go a bit over-the-top you feel less
self-conscious, so it's more liberating."

She borrowed the afro-wig idea from her seven-year-old son Bruno, who wore
one to a fancy dress party. "He went as a pirate," Nigella says, "so I don't
know where the afro fitted in.

"It was quite a release," she says of the wig, "because I don't consider
myself to have a ‘hairstyle'." Thus blow-drying isn't an activity that Nigella
indulges in before going out. She also steers clear of mirrors ("I believe in
avoiding all forms of self-regard") and even makes the following bold claim: "I
can get ready faster than any woman or man alive."

As she ever-so-swiftly readies herself for this month's parties, she does,
of course, have a new husband in tow, the advertising guru and art collector
Charles Saatchi. They married in secret at the end of this year's scorching
summer. It was a happy event in what has been a successful life, but one tinged
with tragedy.

Her mother Vanessa, who was divorced from her father Nigel Lawson, former
Chancellor of the Exchequer, died of liver cancer, aged 48. It was breast cancer
that robbed her of her sister Thomasina at 32. Her first husband, the journalist
John Diamond, also died of cancer, in 2001. Breaking the news to her two small
children Mimi, now nearly ten, and Bruno was the hardest thing she has ever had
to do.

"I do feel an anxiety about life," she says, "but also I think I'm very
lucky. Terrible things have happened to other people and at least I do get a
life. And I feel good that I'm always busy."

Thus far, her busyness has included seminal cookbooks such as How To Eat,
How To Be A Domestic Goddess and Forever Summer, a TV career that has made her
huge in America, and her new Living Kitchen range of cookware.

She plans a quiet holiday this year. "I want it to be just family," she
says, "especially as we're establishing a new one." Having watched her TV shows,
one imagines a scene of domestic perfection but she is quick to dispel such a
view.

"I don't know how I'm perceived, except that on TV I'm more organised and
fabulous than I really am," she says. "Actually, I think of myself as being
slightly shambolic."
Her main focus is on good planning and making sure there
is enough food in the house ("I'm like the John Lewis slogan," she suggests.
"I'm never knowingingly undercatered.") As well as the food and drink, Christmas
chez Nigella features bingo and ping pong. Her husband, she explains, is the
reigning champion of the latter and she plans to hire a professional bingo
caller. The rest of the time, as with most of us mere mortals, will be spent
watching telly.

"Charles normally drives," she says of who controls the remote. "Anything
for an easy life."
And what of books? Does she lap up literature? "I don't
think it's appropriate to read in the early stages of marriage," she says, with
a hint of sauce.
And so, vulgar though it is, I am forced to ask the question
that has fuelled a hundred press rumours: will we be hearing the pitter-patter
of tiny Saatchi feet?

"I'd love another baby, but I'm not sure I want any more children," she
says. "I like being pregnant; I feel magnificent and fecund. For me it's the
revenge of the Not-Thin. But I like life as it is. I'd have to be forced into a
decision, and as I haven't made one, the answer is ‘no'."
Nigella on
surviving Christmas

Christmas will be less stressful if you realise that it won't be
stress-free.

Don't try something for the first time if you've got ten people coming
round.

Cook in advance and then only things that need little preparation.

Avoid things that need enormous dexterity or concentration.

When planning a party, remember that when you come to cook the chances are
you're going to
be either exhausted or drunk.

Only invite people you feel relaxed with. If that's not possible, allow
your guests to cause stress
while the food relaxes you.

Create yummy nibbles so that people arriving at different times have
something delicious to help themselves to.

Make sure you have some Halloumi in the fridge. It makes a great,
low-effort snack sliced and fried in an oilless pan and is also great for
vegetarians.

Never have more than three pans bubbling away at the same time.

Make it simple. If more people turn up than expected, you want food you can
add to without needing a maths degree.

Don't buy too many varieties of wine. Find one red and one white that you
like and get loads of it.

Freeze bacon rashers and slices of bread in pairs, so that you're never
more than three minutes away from a bacon sandwich.

This article was first published on Waitrose.com in
December 2003

Thought I'd include that little article there...