While Jamie Oliver always has a certain appeal, this cookbook has so many problems for the average home cook. Initially, this premise is really great: everything is grouped into meals (usually an entree and either two accompaniments or a salad and a dessert) and the instructions are written to have you cooking all components simultaneously. Everything is thought out and planned for you! Awesome, right?

If you are part of a foodie couple, or a family open to all foods with no health concerns, it would work fine. If you are like most families, dinner hosts, etc. you are contending with special diets, picky eaters and other issues. It is very hard to go through and mark which ones can be cooked, as is. It is also very difficult to extract one aspect of a meal you want to try and mix with something else. It can be done, but even Oliver says it is best to make the meal at least once before trying to extract elements.

I don't want to poo-poo cookbooks that have planned meals, as life is tough, time is finite and we all need a little help. They make a great addition to any cookbook collection. However, they have to be part of a collection; this cannot be your everyday, go-to cookbook. It is equally drool-worthy to all his other books (Bloody Mary Mussels. Genius!) and, with some misé-en-place, the recipes can be made fairly easily (the instructions have his usual clarity). If you are trying to master cooking an entire meal with different dishes simultaneously, this is a good practice book to work through. I just do not see this as a cookbook you will be using daily.

Note: I don't know about different editions, but mine has American references, American terms and Imperial measurements. ( )

While Jamie Oliver always has a certain appeal, this cookbook has so many problems for the average home cook. Initially, this premise is really great: everything is grouped into meals (usually an entree and either two accompaniments or a salad and a dessert) and the instructions are written to have you cooking all components simultaneously. Everything is thought out and planned for you! Awesome, right?

If you are part of a foodie couple, or a family open to all foods with no health concerns, it would work fine. If you are like most families, dinner hosts, etc. you are contending with special diets, picky eaters and other issues. It is very hard to go through and mark which ones can be cooked, as is. It is also very difficult to extract one aspect of a meal you want to try and mix with something else. It can be done, but even Oliver says it is best to make the meal at least once before trying to extract elements.

I don't want to poo-poo cookbooks that have planned meals, as life is tough, time is finite and we all need a little help. They make a great addition to any cookbook collection. However, they have to be part of a collection; this cannot be your everyday, go-to cookbook. It is equally drool-worthy to all his other books (Bloody Mary Mussels. Genius!) and, with some misé-en-place, the recipes can be made fairly easily (the instructions have his usual clarity). If you are trying to master cooking an entire meal with different dishes simultaneously, this is a good practice book to work through. I just do not see this as a cookbook you will be using daily.

Note: I don't know about different editions, but mine has American references, American terms and Imperial measurements. ( )

På trettio minuter blankt står middagen serverad. Inte bara en huvudrätt, utan förrätt, sidorätt, efterrätt, måltidsdryck. Det som passar ihop, helt enkelt!

Det ska inte ta längre tid att laga en god, välbalanserad måltid än vad det vanligtvis brukar ta att laga bara en rätt. På en halvtimme ska du få ihop något gott till hela familjen. Jamies trettiominutersmat innehåller inte mindre än 50 recept. Du får lära dig alla smarta knep Jamie har för att snabbt få maten klar. Det handlar om allt ifrån koncentrationsförmåga och hur man lägger upp arbetet till vilka praktiska handlag du måste känna till för att kunna spara viktig tid i köket.

Varje recept är en hel meny. God mat som passar perfekt ihop. Upplägget i boken är lätt att följa och Jamie lovar att det inte tar mer än trettio minuter från det att du tänder ljuset i köket tills att middagen står på bordet. Vissa moment kan du gå in på internet och se hur de ska göras [instruktionsfilmerna är ej översatta till svenska]. Många måltider går att få helt vegetariska för den som vill. Och Jamie lägger som bekant alltid stor vikt vid råvaror och miljövänlighet. Så kort kan man säga att de här trettio minuterna går ovanligt långt utöver vad som är normalt i ett genomsnittligt svenskt hushåll en vanlig onsdagskväll.

Well, I was just going to post a few words on this, but I might as well review it, though I've by no means read the whole book.

The tradition for librarians resigning (for whatever reason) from the club library where I've been volunteering is that they are presented with a book. Now that we've been forced to close the library, this was on the list of books I chose when our convenor kindly asked what I wanted. I like Oliver's casual style (though it's completely opposite to mine) and his principles of trying to put healthy meals on school canteen tables and trying to convince us to cook at home rather than ordering out or buying TV dinners.

So, having recently received this book, I've only tried a couple of the recipes. I like the way it's presented; a whole meal (main and sides), sometimes with a dessert and/ or a drink with the cooking plan all worked out and given in stages. There is one page with the title with a photo on the facing page of what the completed meal (is supposed to) looks like, then over the page, the ingredients and then a step by step method with several dishes on the go at the same time with snapshots of the work in progress on the page facing that. Occasionally there may be a camera icon, which indicates that there is a video online of that particular stage - such as deboning and stuffing a chicken breast). I also like equipment list at the beginning of the book, which runs from food processor and recommended attachments through size and types of pans to whisks and knives.

So far, so good. Now - having furnished myself with the necessary additional equipment - for the actual cooking. I'm a decent enough cook, but I am a slow, methodical one and I have a need to constantly check back to the recipe - not a good idea when you have several things on the fire at the same time. The first thing Jamie says at the beginning of each recipe, after the ingredients, is 'Get all your ingredients and equipment ready'. (I do tend to pull things out as I go along, but I resolved this by highlighting the equipment in the recipe and having most of it ready to hand.) For someone who is used to having several pans on the fire, this would probably be an easy book to cook from, but both days (so far) have taken me an hour and a half, give or take. Admittedly, I usually tend to bake or do one pot dishes like bolognaise so this is a new technique for me. I've tried the Stuffed Cypriot Chicken and the Roast Beef (which is actually pan-fried to get it onto the table in 30 minutes ... or so.)

However, I'm not put off and I intend to make more meals from this book. Once I eventually got them to table, the meals were delicious (my 13 year old son loves them though my more picky 8 year old needs a bit of persuasion still; his more refined cuisine tends to run to PB&J) with no major disasters, though there were a couple of things that I thought 'Oh - I should have done it like that. Next time'.

A good book, though probably not recommended for a beginner cook (definitely not if they expect to have the food on the table in 30 minutes). I think - at least for now - I'll give it 4 stars. ( )

As to be expected from Jamie Oliver, another fabulous book, full of wonderful photography and recipes that are easy to follow and of the type that you would cook many times over. I like the way this guy works in the kitchen! ( )