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Midnight Chicken: & Other Recipes Worth Living For
by
Recipes that reveal the life-changing happiness of cooking
There are lots of ways to start a story, but this one begins with a chicken.
Midnight Chicken (& Other Recipes Worth Living For) is a cookbook. Or, at least, you'll flick through these pages and find recipes so inviting that you'll head straight for the kitchen: roast garlic and tomato soup, uplifting chilli-lemon sp ...more
There are lots of ways to start a story, but this one begins with a chicken.
Midnight Chicken (& Other Recipes Worth Living For) is a cookbook. Or, at least, you'll flick through these pages and find recipes so inviting that you'll head straight for the kitchen: roast garlic and tomato soup, uplifting chilli-lemon sp ...more
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Hardcover, 288 pages
Published
January 10th 2019
by Bloomsbury Publishing
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Start your review of Midnight Chicken: & Other Recipes Worth Living For
Jan 29, 2019
alyssa
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Ever cry while reading a cookbook? No? Okay well this will probably change that. She talks honestly and openly about grieving and mental health and struggling and wants to make cooking accessible to all.
Can’t speak to the quality of the recipes as I haven’t made any but they also seem good and Risbridger is a comforting cheerleader along the way. She makes me want to cook even though I’m much more of a baker (she says at some point that baking is about following rules which is isn’t good at but ...more
Can’t speak to the quality of the recipes as I haven’t made any but they also seem good and Risbridger is a comforting cheerleader along the way. She makes me want to cook even though I’m much more of a baker (she says at some point that baking is about following rules which is isn’t good at but ...more
“You’re life is like a stockpot, simmering with all these minutes: everything you’ve ever learned and everything you’ve ever loved.”
These are recipes of grief and mourning. Low faff eats with time spent stirring over a stove to remind yourself you can indeed survive. It’s ironic that at the heart of this aching sadness is the staff of life, the baking of the bread needed to feed life, the fueling of bolognese energy and the bubbling tears of the soup pot. We can handle so much more than we think ...more
These are recipes of grief and mourning. Low faff eats with time spent stirring over a stove to remind yourself you can indeed survive. It’s ironic that at the heart of this aching sadness is the staff of life, the baking of the bread needed to feed life, the fueling of bolognese energy and the bubbling tears of the soup pot. We can handle so much more than we think ...more
A vividly water-colored poetic autobiographical cookbook, quivering with playfulness and salty with grief (read all the way to the end). I'm reluctant to return it to the library and putting it on my wish list. The artwork inspired me to shove things out of my cabinets and try to make my kitchen as beautiful and functional as the pictures. As deeply personal as wearing someone's robe and drinking out of their mug, plus a scrumptious bibliography that makes you want more.
This is a real treasure of a find on NetGalley. I’ve requested several recipe books over the years and found some wonderful new recipes to try. This book just feels as though one of your friends is sharing her favourite recipes with you. She shares memories, tough times and her recipes become stories. It’s a whole culinary experience making you want to bookmark recipes to try. I would love to get a paper copy of this one for my kitchen bookshelf and add lots of post it notes to the ones I want t
...more
3.5, but just in terms of its general existence and what it represents, it's something much greater. This is because of the story she tells in the acknowledgments/I learned by googling that her partner, referenced lovingly throughout, passed away and the thought that all of this involved so much of him and the essence of their lives and preserving the memory of that broke me a little. Ok a lot. I have to see how I feel about this over time, it might get bumped up in my mind eventually.
But the st ...more
But the st ...more
This is a glorious, breathtaking, heartbreaking book. The writing is stunning and soul searing. I’ve never cried over a cookbook before and, for the first time, am not complaining about the lack of photos of the recipes.
However.
Being an American who never quite caught on to the whole metric system, I am, sadly, knocking off a star. This is not the fault of the author. Oh no. I place blame solely on the editor/publisher here. This would have been a 5 star beauty if not for the idiot editor who ...more
However.
Being an American who never quite caught on to the whole metric system, I am, sadly, knocking off a star. This is not the fault of the author. Oh no. I place blame solely on the editor/publisher here. This would have been a 5 star beauty if not for the idiot editor who ...more
The writing... just know that it contains multiple references to the Famous Five and multiple uses of the phrase “like billy-o”. The preludes to recipes and chapters are great, lovely insights that aren’t like the blog posts with acres of toss when all you want is a salad dressing recipe - you actually want to read them. In fact I personally would have liked more! If the author is comfortable, a full memoir would be great, as often these snippets are so whimsical as to be lightly unreal (I mean,
...more
Yes I read a cookbook and cried about it.
This book is my ideal book, a book with stories about food, life, feelings, alongside deliciously simple recipes. I loved it.
Even though this book has recipes with good directions, it is not exactly a cookbook. It is part memoir with an appreciation about having a family made of friends who are reliably there for the good and bad times--no matter what. The book is wholeheartedly a paean to life and the love that makes it jubilant when things are going well, and bearable when things are not going so well. It is noticeably British; the recipes are written with a mix of metric and centigrade measurements; and there are B
...more
There's much to like about this book and I'm sure it will be of great comfort to readers, especially those who live with mild anxiety and depression and who, with Risbridger's support and encouragement, feel able to contemplate cooking again. The food is good home cooking, you aren't expected to have prior knowledge and Risbridger is clearly on your side if this is the case, or you feel too demotivated, tired, or unwell to know where to begin.
I do feel that Midnight Chicken walks a fine line bet ...more
I do feel that Midnight Chicken walks a fine line bet ...more
This is my favorite *reading* cookbook I have read in my life, and I enjoy reading cookbooks. Part no-nonsense cookbook, part memoir, part life affirming manifesto, it's the kind of cookbook you can read how you like- cover to cover, leafing through, however you prefer.
I have laughed hard enough someone in the other room asked if I was okay. I have insisted on sharing snippets with whoever was closest as I was reading. I have put it down several times in order to better sob. I've carried it aro ...more
I have laughed hard enough someone in the other room asked if I was okay. I have insisted on sharing snippets with whoever was closest as I was reading. I have put it down several times in order to better sob. I've carried it aro ...more
An oh-so-tender, truly life-affirming cookbook and mini memoir of how cooking (and eating) can be therapeutic, forgiving, and yes, worth living for. The author's struggles with mental illness and loss are woven so naturally into the introductions to each recipe, and the recipes themselves are brimming with wit and compassion (unconventional instructions abound, such as "get someone else to set the table," "breath," and "feel immensely smug") that you will feel much more like you are chatting wit
...more
Well, I wasn't expecting to cry reading a cookbook, but I did. It's a memoir with recipes, actually. The author is super honest about her battles with depression and also dealing with the illness of her partner. Recipes are good guidelines, done in the "this is how I did it and it turned out" style. Cheese scone recipe is particularly good.
This book was so deep and rich, in story and in the kitchen. I found myself learning something about cooking as well as about life and struggles and growth through the eyes of another. It doesn’t get any more life affirming than that. It is a great book of food for the stomach and the soul.
Thought it was a darling cover and jumped right in, way more then expected, really appreciated her candor. Cute sketches, raw emotions, bravo for sharing her life so openly and comforting.
Beautiful and devastating with some excellent recipes, too. A book worth gifting again and again.
I don’t normally add cookbooks on here but this is a different kettle of fish, her writing in between each recipe is glorious, it was like a big comforting hug
file under: reasons to live
Some books make you feel that everything will be fine with this world. This book was one such, part-memoir, part-cookbook. It made me cry, it made me laugh, it made me nostalgic. Risbridger has a flair with writing about life which a lot of food writers seem to lack. And oh the acknowledgments killed me. I sat and howled through them. It really was a book I couldn't stop reading but at the same time never wanted it to finish.
I had unusual problem with the breakfast chapter I must confess. I was in absolute agony reading each entry, partly because I had no flour, and partly because I wanted to be reading them all simultaneously and couldn’t bear to be missing out whilst reading one and not another. Once I’d read them all they became pure delight obviously. The other sections were easier!
You will make some of these recipes and not others, but the writing and illustrations alone make them worth their weight in gold. Th ...more
You will make some of these recipes and not others, but the writing and illustrations alone make them worth their weight in gold. Th ...more
I am utterly in love with this book. She hooked me with the breakfast chapter, and things just got better from there.
What do I love about it? Well, I love her voice. It's as if Maeve Brennan relocated to London and started cooking for herself instead of eating in adorable local restaurants. I love the atmosphere she creates. Ella is one of those cooks who makes you really want to eat the food. She gives you a little story to go with each recipe.
And I really like the recipes, so far. There's a V ...more
What do I love about it? Well, I love her voice. It's as if Maeve Brennan relocated to London and started cooking for herself instead of eating in adorable local restaurants. I love the atmosphere she creates. Ella is one of those cooks who makes you really want to eat the food. She gives you a little story to go with each recipe.
And I really like the recipes, so far. There's a V ...more
I can't remember now why I started following Ella Risbridger on Twitter. I know why I kept following her though. Her writing is glorious. Her journalism for the Pool is how I really got to know her and I have read every scrap I could find by her since. This book is more than a cookery book. It is a love story. It is a story of how she found herself after depression nearly robbed her and everyone else of her. It is about memories and childhood, and favourite books, and the joy of eating, and shar
...more
I can't really give a rating until I've tried some of the recipes. *
* I have now made some - the Paris cookies are as good as everyone says!
There's a lot to read in here though, because really it's as much about Risbridger's life as it is about cooking, and her life has already been many things, as far as I can tell, both wonderful and awful. I imagine most people will buying it, at least at first, will be aware of some of this. The book itself looks lovely, by the way, and the illustrations are ...more
* I have now made some - the Paris cookies are as good as everyone says!
There's a lot to read in here though, because really it's as much about Risbridger's life as it is about cooking, and her life has already been many things, as far as I can tell, both wonderful and awful. I imagine most people will buying it, at least at first, will be aware of some of this. The book itself looks lovely, by the way, and the illustrations are ...more
I’ve been following Risbridger’s writing, and life, for years. She’s got a hell of a story. This is a cookbook, but also a memoir, beautifully illustrated, and containing the kind of recipes that it’s perfectly easy to follow if you’re a little bit drunk. It’s aspirational in a completely achievable, you-do-you sort of way; there are allusions to Laurie Lee and Laurie Colwin, The Railway Children and The Secret Garden. Lovely.
I read this like a cookbook...so not in its entirety. To be clear, I'm not a cook. I'm not really interested in recipes so that likely impacted my overall rating. My favorite part of this book was the stories that went along with the recipes. The acknowledgment at the end gutted me a bit. Overall I did enjoy this approach to the cookbook and the art that went along with it was delightful.
Obviously I couldn't be more biased, but I will clutch this book to my chest as I walk into hell.
This is exactly what I am looking for in a cookbook; it feels like a warm embrace and much needed reassurance from somebody who has been where you are and gets it. It is a beautifully written trawl through a life, told in recipes and moments that surround them. Risbridger's voice is kindly and realistic, acknowledging mental health in an honest, affable way that I sincerely appreciated (and haven't seen before in food writing). This book embodies what are, to me, the most important things about
...more
3.5 for the recipes, 4 for the writing, total 3.75 rounded up
The cooking is veddy British--many comforting & meaty dishes like--double soss, eggs and chips, pork pie, pigeon pie and oddly, lots of things with chorizo. But her breads sound great, as do her sweet things, and some of the pack up/picnic things. And she also loves chickpeas and lemons, so many recipes feature those ingredients. My favorite section was Storecupboard Suppers a& Midnight Feasts--Uplifting Chili & Lemon Spaghetti, Blacke ...more
The cooking is veddy British--many comforting & meaty dishes like--double soss, eggs and chips, pork pie, pigeon pie and oddly, lots of things with chorizo. But her breads sound great, as do her sweet things, and some of the pack up/picnic things. And she also loves chickpeas and lemons, so many recipes feature those ingredients. My favorite section was Storecupboard Suppers a& Midnight Feasts--Uplifting Chili & Lemon Spaghetti, Blacke ...more
I am a sucker for cookbooks/memoirs, hearing about someone's life through what they're cooking is a great way to become acquainted with them. And I almost always come away with at least one recipe for my rotation.
I particularly liked the author's mention of many books, especially children's books, that I have also read and enjoyed over the years. Though in the piece on picnics and food tasting better outdoors, in which she cites Enid Blyton's books as examples of picnic expertise, I would also n ...more
I particularly liked the author's mention of many books, especially children's books, that I have also read and enjoyed over the years. Though in the piece on picnics and food tasting better outdoors, in which she cites Enid Blyton's books as examples of picnic expertise, I would also n ...more
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“Women cannot live by toast alone - and although it might feel, at some points in your life, as though the effort to make anything else might kill you, that will not last.”
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“I love recipes like this, reading them and making them. There’s something brilliant about a recipe that doesn’t ask too much of you; a recipe, in fact, where getting it exactly right would be exactly wrong; a recipe you can fiddle with, and tend to when you remember.”
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