5 Ingredients by Jamie Oliver: First Impressions

Let me start off by saying I didn't actually want to choose any cookbook written by Jamie Oliver.

This thought goes back to when I was living in England for two years and Google regularly pulled up the English gentleman's recipes as search results when I would look up something like "easy poached eggs". 

When I search for pretty much any recipe online, the operative word is: easy. Because, to be perfectly honest with you, I'm a very lazy chef.

I bring up this fun fact for the reason that every recipe I found by the lovely Mr Oliver, always seemed way more (necessarily) complicated than any other which meant I never actually followed any of them. 

Therefore, when I was searching for a cookbook that would suit my simpleton method of cooking to ease myself into the world of dynamic food, I knew I needed to steer away from the man who made my brain hurt with fancy terms and extra ingredients that I didn't have. 

However, his 5 Ingredients cookbook was a game changer. 

Finally, there was a cookbook with elegant plating, unique ideas, and captivating imagery that didn't make cooking novices like me tremble in fear or feel exhausted after just looking at the pages. 

The concept of using only 5 key ingredients per delicious recipe meant that I didn't have to stuff my refrigerator or spice rack full of random items I'd only use once. This cookbook also checked off my prerequisite of keeping the steps genuinely simple (from what I can tell so far, at least) and easy to follow! Some cookbooks, I'm looking at you, Gwyneth Paltrow, seem easy breezy until they start throwing in kitchen gadgets normies like me have never seen or heard of and include ingredients that are only found in speciality grocery stores. 

I felt like Goldilocks when I finally took the time to flip through Jamie's pages. All the other cookbooks were either too boring, too complicated, or had a poor layout. But his was just right. 

Now that I've got the right book in my kitchen, I can commence the cooking!

WIsh me luck.