Welcome to “Cookbook of the Week.” This is a series where I highlight cookbooks that are unique, easy to use, or just special to me. While finding a specific recipe online serves a quick purpose, leafing through a truly excellent cookbook has a magic of its own.

There are only a few celebrity chefs I can say with certainty that inspired me to pursue a career in food, and only one whose unbridled joy in cooking and eating has amazed me since I was a teenager. It was a sentiment I could totally identify with, but politely accepted. That queen of indulgence is Nigella Lawson, and this week I’ve chosen to put her cookbook Cook, Eat, Repeat in the spotlight.

One of the first things that struck me after watching episode after episode of Nigella’s shows was her unparalleled skill at description. I specifically remember her once referring to pomegranate seeds as “ruby gems”. This was no ordinary cooking show. She showed her admiration for ingredients and how to love the food you cook, from every roast down to the tiniest seed. After all, you are feeding yourself or the people you care about. Cooking is an act of nurturing and yet utterly hedonistic. It was through watching her shows and listening to her descriptions that I realised that this incredible chef was a writer at heart.

Sharing a title with one of her BBC shows, Cook, Eat, Repeat is Lawson’s latest cookbook, though it was published in 2020 during one of the grimmest days of lockdown. While there are undoubtedly references to the state of the world at the time, and we were all doing much of what the title requires, there is much more to the cookbook than that. There are stories where she considers a particular ingredient, like rhubarb, for example, and retells her development of a particular recipe – at which point she will interrupt herself, with full awareness, and give you that recipe in steps. Then she will complete her reflections and the recipe section will begin.