It’s All About the Food embodies Estelle’s philosophy that “where and how I buy is as much a part of the story as what I cook”. This resonates with me so much and made me excited to dive right into her cookbook.
Author Estelle Sacharowitz reveals that she thinks about food all the time. ‘And as I wonder what it’s all about, and why I do what I do, I realise that it’s all about us. It’s about you, it’s about me, it’s about people. It’s about our complexities, memories and sweetness. It’s about trying to capture time in a form that is familiar, comforting and definite … It’s about creativity and curiosity. It’s about needs, primal and necessary, and also emotional.’And as a magician waving a wand, Estelle distils this into an array of dishes that feed both body and soul in the most delightful and tempting manner. From humble but comforting soups, through nourishing bowls and elegant meals to impress, to bountiful platters, you won’t be able to resist.Simply submit and enjoy. And as Estelle says, ‘Make and eat something that causes you to stop and think, this is wonderful. Life is full of wonder.’
Chapters are divided into:
- The bowl of bowls, soup
- Making it easy, every day
- Nostalgia – the classics
- Elegance
- Sharing platters
- Bowls, just for me
- Things to go with things
- Joyous love, baked treats
- The sweet, sweet stuff

Recipes that caught my eye and those that Dave liked the look of:
- West African soup (p16)
- Pasta fagioli (p19)
- Barley with Mediterranean medley and feta (p29)
- Lamb chops in a lime umami marinade (p34)
- Penne aurora (p38)
- Spaghetti alio olio (p41)
- Classic fruit rolls (p53)
- Sole à la bonne femme (p57)
- Grilled spatchcock chicken in a honey-ginger glaze (p64)
- Hearty vegetable paella with saffron and sherry (p68)
- Portobello mushroom lasagne (p71)
- Slow roasted brisket with red wine and a leek and mushroom medley (p75)
- Malfatti (p76)
- Roasted aubergine dip (p83)
- Buddha bowl (p102)
- Zesty chicken breast bowl (p103)
- The essential throw-over nuts and seeds (p133)
- Spiced ginger chiffon cake (p149)
- Greek yoghurt cake with nutty cinnamon sprinkle (p150)
- Vegan almond peanut crunchies (p153)
- Apple blueberry crumble (p168)

What I made:
For Burns Night I made the brisket which was really tender. However, I felt that the recipe called for too many mushrooms. For 3 kg of brisket the recipe said to add 1.5 kg of mushrooms! To feed 6 people I felt this was way too much. I reduced that to 1 kg and it was still mushroom heavy. Maybe the word or was left out of the recipe? I used the throw-over nuts and seeds recipe as inspiration for toasted seeds and savoury nuts. The Greek yoghurt cake was baked twice as the first time I was not 100 percent happy with the results. I made a few changes and found these worked better for me.

My impressions:
I am not keen on raw onions and shallots but I still would make some of the recipes that uses them, and just leave them out. The photographs are stunning and the only pity is that not all of them are with the actual recipes.
Publishing information:
Penguin Random House South Africa sent me It’s All About The Food to review. Also available in Epub.
View the previous posts on March 30:
-
- 2022: Hello You
- 2020: Avocado Hummus
- 2018: Mince And Courgette Bake
- 2016: John Grundlingh Interview
- 2015: Paneer
- 2012: Lavender
- 2011: Anchovy Butter
Hi Tandy, I admire your passion and enthusiasm for food. As a child, I always appreciated my dear mother’s simple, filling dishes in WW11 when rationing was limiting and Dad’s garden offerings were appreciated. When Mum retired from work, she took an advanced cookery course and made some beautiful cakes and petit fours. During evacuation, my patient foster-mother was also a good cook and favourites were Welsh cakes/Teishen lap (?) fruit cake and hand-picked blackberry and apple pies under golden roofs. Once married, tastes were embellished with many Jewish dishes and husband and I both cooked a lot…and bought a small hotel, combining our efforts and did all the cooking together. Our booking list was soon full, and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and thereafter I wrote my first book: How to Run a Small Hotel (1984) published by Kogan Page, London. Now we’re ancient…we are retired in Spain and eat less; and ‘im indoors’ does the cooking. Great memories! Thank you for reading…Only intended to write one sentence! Keep well and eating well. We must have done something right, as our three sons are all fighting fit. Let it stay that way. Muzeltov! xx
Thank you for the lovely long comment! I can imagine how tough it was to cook tasty food during the rationing of War. We are so blessed to not have to worry about that now 🙂
I agree with you about photo placement, and photos in general. Very annoying. Either use photos or don’t!
I am swaying more and more to the need for photos as recipe names can sometimes be misleading!
It’s interesting that many cookbooks these days have no photos, or only a few drawings of the food, or just the ingredients. Harking back to days gone by when authors like Mrs. Beeton would have only had a few drawings of the dishes. Yes that sounds like waaaay too many mushies! Have a fun weekend.
We are watching an interesting programme about recipe books and photos seem to be key, and yet this very same publisher does not follow their own philosophy all the time, which I think is due to cost!
Lovely review Tandy. I think I would resonate with her as well, love her philosophy. Look forward to you cooking some of her recipes.
I will share some soon 🙂
Hi Tandy, it doesn’t sound as if the recipes in this book work without interventions. I’m not sure I’d be keen on it as a result.
For a lot of people, having to work out what a recipe is meant to be makes their lives far too complicated! So I totally get it 🙂