What Nigella Lawson Eats Every Day
Nigella Lawson, the prolific chef and journalist, is well known within the world of food. She has worked as a restaurant critic, had her own food column in Vogue, and hosted a variety of shows on television, including "Simply Nigella" and "Nigella Express." She has also penned more than a dozen cookbooks. Lawson's career is obviously illustrious, and her decades of experience make her an expert on all things edible. But what does she herself like to eat? The answer is both as simple as roast chicken and as complex as cappuccino pavlova.
As it turns out, Lawson is a big believer in balance. She thinks that everything in moderation is a good thing — that is, she does not restrict her diet. It has taken her many years to figure out the exact line-up of food that works best for her, but by now, Lawson knows pretty well what she likes. This is everything we know about what Nigella Lawson eats in a day.
Breakfast is not Nigella Lawson's favorite meal
Nigella Lawson used to force herself to eat breakfast, even though she didn't really enjoy it. In a 2007 interview with NPR, Lawson said, "It's the only time of day, really, when I make myself eat ... I often find if I get up very early, it's quite hard to eat first thing. But I have made that ultimate sacrifice." In recent years, however, Lawson has done away with the notion that she must eat a morning meal. Although she likes breakfast foods, she doesn't like eating early, so she usually forgoes breakfast.
That doesn't mean that she doesn't eat breakfast foods, however. As a celebrated chef and recipe developer, Lawson spends a good amount of time testing and recommending different breakfasts. For busy days, Lawson suggests some granola or one of her popular breakfast bars. For more relaxed mornings, perhaps over the weekend, Lawson recommends her American pancake recipe. Finally, for egg aficionados, Lawson showcases a Corsican omelet or Mexican scrambled eggs.
Lunch is always something different
Although she's always working on something in the kitchen, Nigella Lawson doesn't have a set schedule when it comes to food. She wrote in The Guardian, "The food I'm cooking now is simply the food I want to eat. It doesn't have a theme, but then life doesn't have a theme." This means that lunch is always something different; it might be a warm roasted cauliflower salad, chicken shawarma, or lamb ribs, as she suggested in her article. One thing we do know is that Lawson is passionate about avocado, and often incorporates the ingredient into her meals.
On Sundays, which are more relaxing, Lawson might let her friends cook for her. If she is cooking herself, the meal will usually turn into something between lunch and dinner. For this lunch/dinner meal, she often finds herself making roast chicken and potato salad, rich with sharp elements like gherkins and capers.
Roast chicken is her favorite dinner
The reason Nigella Lawson always ends up making roast chicken on Sundays is simple: It's her favorite meal. Many people can relate; the perfect roast chicken is completely achievable at home if you know the right technique, and it's a classic meal that always satisfies. Lawson is a huge fan of traditional British food in general (she also loves to eat savory pies).
Of course, Lawson doesn't eat the same thing for dinner every day. In fact, during lockdown in 2020, the chef turned to a particular meal to comfort her: noodles with lamb shank and aromatic broth. Of this meal, she told Media Shotz (via Hello!), "This dish is something I've been making for a while, but it became very important to me in lockdown ... It is so soothing and yet a real feast at the same time." She is also, apparently, a huge fan of comfort food classic lasagna. Her recipe is a labor of love, and she usually makes the dish for family get-togethers. That said, Lawson does not always get so complicated with her dinners, and more frequently turns to something very simple.
Simple is always best for Nigella Lawson
While she may be amazing at creating deliciously complicated meals, Nigella Lawson actually prefers to eat very simply. She is a big fan of something that the internet calls "girl dinner." This term basically means any meal that is made up of scraps from the refrigerator; it can vary from some version of a charcuterie board to a smorgasbord of different leftovers.
Lawson has been vocal about her love of bread and cheese as a meal, telling Australian Today (via The Kitchn) that it is "the best meal in the world." Bread and cheese has been a staple for hundreds of years, and it's no wonder why. It makes for a satisfying meal at any time of the day, especially when you really don't want to cook. It might be rather surprising that bread and cheese is the favorite meal of such an accomplished chef, but then, even chefs get tired of cooking sometimes.
Nigella Lawson is not afraid to treat herself to something sweet
Nigella Lawson knows well that there's no point in denying herself the things that she craves, because she will just end up eating something sweet anyway. She told Delish, "When I want a bit of chocolate, I have a bit of chocolate. And then I don't have to eat 10 bars of it! I'm not denying myself, so I don't get that obsessive craving."
Lawson is a big fan of desserts, and her absolute favorite is pavlova. She started making this dish in the '90s, and it has been a love affair ever since. Liking to keep things simple, as usual, her favorite topping for this whipped meringue dessert is sour passion fruit and nothing else. She has also taken to social media to post other pavlova recipes. For example, she posted a cappuccino pavlova to her Instagram in 2020, revealing that the bitter coffee and sugary meringue complement each other beautifully.
For Nigella Lawson, a balanced lifestyle is more important than a strict diet
Just like her approach to eating dessert, Nigella Lawson doesn't believe in restricting her diet. Instead of banning any particular food from her plate, Lawson believes that everything is good in moderation. At a London press event (via Delish), she said, "There is a way in which food is used to either self-congratulate — you're a better person because you're eating like that — or to self-persecute, because you'll not allow yourself to eat what you want." Lawson does not live like this; food is simply food, and it is meant to nourish our bodies. This perspective shows that while she definitely puts in an effort to maintain a healthy diet, Lawson isn't afraid of any one food.
In addition to eating well balanced meals, Lawson does yoga to stay in shape. It is important to Lawson to really enjoy any exercise she does, and she loves yoga. She usually takes a class three times a week.
Her tastes have changed throughout the years
As someone who has been cooking for decades, Nigella Lawson has gone through many phases when it comes to food. She started cooking with her mother and her grandmother at the age of six. Today, she knows what she likes and has a certain style of cooking she sticks to, but that was not always the case. In fact, she was not always even a food lover; Lawson has revealed that she absolutely hated eating when she was a little kid.
As she got older and started cooking for herself, however, she learned what she liked and started experimenting with her cooking. Lawson recalls the '70s as a decade dominated by eggs and mayonnaise. It is also the decade in which she discovered avocado, which is still one of her favorite ingredients. During the '80s, Lawson was a college student, and often impressed her roommates with her dishes, including the onion soup that earned her the nickname "The Queen of Onion Soup." During the '90s, Lawson discovered pavlova, and in the '00s, she got much more into baking.
There are some foods, however, that have been a consistent staple for Lawson throughout the years. For example, the food she remembers eating most as a child is roast chicken, which happens to be her favorite dinner today.
When she travels, Nigella Lawson has a few familiar favorites
Nigella Lawson spends a lot of her time traveling, and with travel comes the opportunity to explore new kinds of food. One of her favorite places to visit is Australia; she has visited the country quite a few times over the years. When she's there, she spends her time trying different restaurants and enjoying the best food the nation has to offer.
For example, on one of her more recent trips to Sydney, Lawson documented many of the restaurants she went to on social media. She loves the delectable sandwiches at Small's Deli so much, she starts dreaming about them immediately after nabbing a plane ticket down under. She also frequents Icebergs Dining Room and Bar, of which she wrote on Instagram, "Are you even in Sydney if you don't go to @icebergsdiningroomandbar?" She accompanied this recommendation with scrumptious pictures of her pasta, shrimp, steak tartare, and fish and chips.
Lawson doesn't just travel to Australia, either. Her favorite place to travel to for the purpose of eating is Manhattan. Simply due to its wide variety, Lawson says that New York City is difficult to beat.