Jamies Italy - ? - Rated 
A OK book but I was expecting a few more Italin classics, didnt seem to have much of a Italin fell to me. My partner asked me to choose 1 recepie that he would cook for me (he's a big Jamie fan) but I struggled to choose one I liked the sound of!
jamie s Italy - Rated 
I loved this book so much i had to buy it for a friend as well. All the recipes are authentic the only less exciting chapter was the desserts one, many traditional cakes were not mentioned . Love the rest of the book.
Disaster - Rated 
I used three recipes last night, and against my better judgement, I promised myself I would not tinker and make a truly Jamie Oliver night of it. Well, disaster struck. Two of the three, the starter and the dessert were miserably uncooperative. The main course saved the evening but perhaps not my reputation as a decent cook. I did break the rules a bit and doubled the sugar in the rice pie (Torta di Riso), and the remarks at table?.. "What's missing is sugar." The texture was rubbery, the taste unequalled in blandness (despite the massive orange rind input) and I ended up with enough filling and crust for two pies. The shortcrust pastry was yummy though. For the fried ricotta (Ricotta Fritta), I had a feeling there was not enough binding (balance of ricotta, flour and egg was wrong), and sure enough, they fell apart horribly in the pan, much more horribly than Jamie had warned. I just kept coddling them in the pan until something presentable could be mustered for my guests. The taste was saved by my not being as sparing with the salt as was advised. The stuffed pork chops (Costolette di Maiale) were the big hit of the evening, but given what preceded and what followed, I suppose we were all looking for a winner and something to fill our bellies! It's a lovely book to look at, the photographs are amazing, I like Jamie's chatty style of writing, and his love of Italy and Italian cooking is infectious, but I would not try another recipe without lending it some much-needed help.
good book - Rated 
great for dinner partys and when trying to impress! however i usually reduce his quantities for lemon juice as i find his are far too acidic and sometimes I feel he puts olive oil on things that really aren't necessary... I'm half Italian and it is true that each region is quite stubborn about how they do things but if you just throw caution to the wind and do it 9 times out of ten you'll be pleasantly surprised!
Terrible - Rated 
I received this book as a Christmas present, and was excited to see that it had lots of recipes for large groups - perfect as we were heading off on holiday with 10 people.
I bought ingredients for two of the recipes: a bread-based tomato soup and a beef stew. I'm a competent cook and a few of the instructions looked a bit strange to me (eg cooking the beef for a whopping 6 hours) but in both cases I followed the recipes slavishly - against my better judgement, as it turned out! The results were absolutely awful, tasteless mush. The tomato soup had far, far too much bread in it and really just tasted of bread, with a slight hint of tomato. The beef stew was slow-cooked, but for such a long time that the beef was really dry and overcooked, and had lost most of its flavour. I have a couple of other Jamie Oliver books, and although I'm not his biggest fan I do use them from time to time and have found the results perfectly fine. This one however is destined for the charity shop!
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