A Literary Luncheon with Nigella Lawson

We arrive early. The SMH Literary Luncheon with Nigella Lawson (14th March) is definitely well attended. I’d bought the luncheon tickets as a Valentine’s Day gift for my wife (a Nigella fan) and had to endure some playful ribbing about who the gift was really intended for. There’s been much said about Nigella’s male fan base and today, they are in good attendance … and so we wait with the other 750 attendees in a filled Sydney Convention Centre venue for the guest of honour to arrive.

In the meantime, some refreshing Tyrrell’s wines tides us over while we introduce ourselves to the fellow foodies on our tables.

The CEO of Dymocks welcomes us, outlines the format for the luncheon and touts the raffle for some of Nigella’s products (which of course we don’t win). Our two course meal (all crafted from her latest book Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home) commences.

Our main dish is Patara Lamb Shanks with Saffron Risotto and Poached Green Asparagus. It’s not quite what I expected.  Perhaps I had these “baking, domestic goddess” images in my mind (I did say my wife was more so the fan), but it’s a ripper. The gelatinous, fall off the bone lamb in a light curry sauce, contrasts perfectly with the more heavily spiced saffron risotto. It’s really moorish and consumed before a photo opportunity takes places. Doh!

Someone notices that Nigella has quietly entered and joined the main table. There are some exclamations, oohs and ahhs from several ladies on our table and comments “isn’t she beautiful”. I must admit with her porcelain skin, high cheek bones, she is a classic beauty.

Our dessert dish arrives, it’s classic Nigella. A Flourless Chocolate Lime Cake with Double Cream and Seasonal Berries. A great combination quickly consumed. The Convention Centre Executive chef, Uwe Habermehl, has done a great job in recreating Nigella’s recipes for which she compliments him while noting that the recipes are designed for simplicity.

With the meal concluded, Sue Bennett, Editor of Good Living, introduces Nigella, 51, to the stage summarising her many accomplishments (Nigella actually started with a degree in medieval languages at Oxford) and “back to basics” philosophy.

Welcomed to the stage with much applause Nigella continues that back to basics line.  She detests the “cult of the expert” and wants us to do “real cooking”. Abandon the recipe she says, go rogue. It’s your food, you should make it how you like to eat it. She asks the audience to email through any ideas, suggestions as they tweak recipes, or find matches that work. There’s nothing wrong with a fridge forage, working up those leftovers or “making leftovers right” as she would say.

She recounts the example of a friend who was heard sobbing in the kitchen while trying to get a dinner party to the table. Preparing meals should be fun, without stress, and comfortable (eg. Nigella doesn’t use weighty cast iron cookware anymore, a likely concession to the back pain she suffers). Shortcuts are OK.

She speaks with much love about the recipes she’s inherited from her mother, in particular ”My mother’s praised chicken” recipe that, through its smell and taste, evokes many family memories.

Nigella’s not professional trained and when she first contemplated doing the TV shows she wanted it to be natural.  It was unscripted, she was thinking on her feet.  She admits that initially, scared of the silence, she sometimes “rabbited on”.

She enjoys her trips to Australia and the opportunity to try new things and particularly loves some of our products like the pink Murray River Sea Salt and our olive oils.

The microphone is handed to the audience for the Q&A.  Some interesting insights come out:

Q:  Do you actually film the TV series in your home?

A:  Yes, initially it was.  It didn’t feel right to do it in a studio.  But that became challenging, she even had to evict her sister from the house for one series.  With her children growing up it wasn’t reasonable to ask them to be quiet or not walk across the floor for 6 hours while they filmed.  So she’s got a work pad for filming, her space (not a studio) across the river where a couple of her friends live.  A refuge for “fallen women” she jests.

Q:  Will you write an autobiography?

A:  She’s never really thought about it.  In fact, would be astonished if she did, she says “my food is my autobiography”.

Q:  … and is she working on her next book?

A:  Not right now… they are “too self indulgent”.

Q:  What food can’t you live without?

A:  Salt, butter, bread, chicken… and she’s got a thing for salted caramel at the moment.

Q:  What does she think about the focus on healthy eating?

A:  Well she thinks she eats perfectly healthily. The “thing is I eat perfectly healthily for five or six people”. Yes, some foods are vilified, others venerated. She quotes the French saying “all thing in moderation, even moderation itself”.

Q:  Do you really prepare late night snacks and take them to bed to eat?

A:  Well yes. She’s not really a picker in the kitchen during the daytime, so the night it is. But sometimes she has to chant to herself “leave the kitchen”.

… and of course there is the last (and also most staged question) …

Q:  What does Nigella think about her sexiness, comments on her flirtatiousness?

A:  She counters saying that television has a “glamourising lens”, she’s down to earth, doesn’t comb the back of her hair. She notes that food is very sensual and she is just happy to take some of the reflected glory from it.

Question time closes and there’s a rush to get in the book signing queue.  An hour wait (we’re in the middle of the queue) gets us to the front of the line. Yes, she is charming, a voluptuous classical beauty, and now she has another “doe-eyed” follower eager to try some recipes out of her new book.