From the Oven to the Table

by Diana Henry

2020 James Beard Award Nominee
​
Named one of fall 2019’s Best Cookbooks by The New York Times, Eater, thekitchen, epicurious, Chowhound, and Completely Dorrie

THE SUNDAY TIMES  BESTSELLER

 

"For bung-it-in-the-oven cooks everywhere, this is a must-have Diana Henry has a genius for flavour." - Nigella Lawson

The Sunday Times  Best Cookbooks of the Year

"This might be Henry's most useful book yet, which is saying something." -  The Sunday Times

Guardian 's Best Cookbooks and Food Writing of the Year

"The shining star is Diana Henry's  From the Oven to the Table , in which she faultlessly delivers highly achievable, boldly flavoured dishes."  - Meera Sodha, the  Guardian

Independent 's Best Cookbooks of the Year

"A new cookbook from Diana Henry is always a reason to celebrate and  From the Oven to the Table  is no exception."  -  Independent

Observer Food Monthly  20 Best Food Books  of the Year

"There's so much to love about the latest from the  Sunday Telegraph  writer. Its great strength lies in updating and upgrading food you'll want to produce with a flourish. Deliciously photographed, too."  - Allan Jenkins,  Observer Food Monthly

Daily Mail 's Cookery Books of the Year

"Diana Henry is one of Britain's best cookery her recipes are instantly appealing and she's the most elegant of writers. (...) Packed with hearty, highly flavoured dishes, it's the perfect winter cookbook for those days when you need sustenance without putting in too much effort."  -  Daily Mail

Sunday Times   Ireland  Cookbook of the Year

"Of all the new cookbooks that came into my house this year, this is the one that has been used most often."

Delicious.magazine 's Best Cookbooks  of the Year

"Her most simply satisfying book yet? A must-own."  -  Delicious.magazine

Diana Henry's favorite way to cook is to throw ingredients into a dish or roasting tin, slide them in the oven and let the heat behind that closed door transform them into golden, burnished meals. Most of the easy-going recipes in this wonderfully varied collection are cooked in one dish; some are ideas for simple accompaniments that can be cooked on another shelf at the same time.

From quick after-work suppers to feasts for friends, the dishes are vibrant and modern and focus on grains, pulses and vegetables as much as meat and fish. With recipes such as Chicken Thighs with Miso, Sweet Potatoes & Spring Onions, Roast Indian-spiced Vegetables with Lime-Coriander Butter, and Roast Stone Fruit with Almond and Orange Flower Crumbs, Diana shows how the oven is the most useful bit of kit you have in your kitchen.

“This is an extraordinary piece of food writing, pitch perfect in  every way. I couldn't love anyone who didn't love this book.”  -  Nigella Lawson

“...her best yet...superb menus evoking place and occasion with consummate elegance” -  Financial Times

Food Book of the Year at the André Simon Food & Drink Book Awards 2019

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Reference, Food and Wine, Culinary

240 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2019

Reviews

[Shipshapeeatworthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the Oven to the Table follows the familiar big flavours and ingredients as well as gorgeous photography present in Henry's other cookbooks but in all honesty, I found the approach much simpler with this book. A well-stocked pantry and some good-quality sheet pans, roasters, gratin dishes, or the like will have you on your way to getting a meal made with minimal effort. And, after reading her introduction I feel like this cookbook was really written over the past couple of decades, born from the Monday-to-Friday-get-a-meal-on-the-table situations that Henry experienced cooking for her own family. I really appreciate that she understands how busy life is and has offered recipes that are virtually "hands off" -- the tagline for the book after all is "simple dishes that look after themselves." What I've found with the recipes I've tried is that you prep the ingredients, get them in a pan, stick them in the oven, and voila! Instead of actively cooking, standing at the stove I used that time my dinner was roasting or baking to tidy-up the kitchen and have a quick sit down in my favourite chair by the window. Maybe a bit gratuitous for a Monday night but it feels mighty nice to not toil over the stove, eat, and then trudge back to the kitchen to clean up everything.

The recipes are organized into seven chapters: Simple Suppers (sausages, chops, fish fillets, & the like), My Favourite Ingredient (chicken thighs forever), Asparagus to Zucchini (spring & summer vegetables), Beets & Bitter Greens (autumn & winter vegetables), Cook Until Tender (grains & legumes), Weekends & Holidays (roasts, birds, & whole fish), and Something Sweet (desserts & cake). Aside from some specialty grocery items such as miso or preserved lemons, all the ingredients I needed for the recipes I made are found at the local market or grocery store. While none of Diana Henry's cookbooks are special diet books, I found more than enough vegetarian-based recipes to suit my family. If you're looking for vegan or gluten-free recipes, it's just a matter of hunting them out in the book (there is no index or special symbols).

It wasn't just me who enjoyed cooking from this book! There were recipes that even my 5-year-old daughter helped with, which really helps her to feel some agency about what we're eating. One day after school I decided we'd have the White Beans & Roasted Tomatoes w/ Capers, Mint, & Chili Dressing and once I'd gotten the tomatoes into the oven, I had my daughter measure and whisk the dressing. Then, together we mixed all the components in a large serving bowl and I served the dish with warmed flatbread. A little spicy, a touch cool, sweet and mellow this recipe is bold on flavour with minimal ingredients. It was also a recipe that my daughter enjoyed -- maybe if I'd made and served a dish with mint, chili, capers, and garlic she'd have been a bit more resistant to trying it but as it was she "sampled" the ingredients as she added them to the dressing and was pleased to have "made" dinner that night.

Most certainly things like pizza, pasta, and pot pies are baked in the oven but this is not what Henry's book focuses on. From the Oven to the Table is really about roasting or baking ingredients -- beans/legumes, grains, fruit, and vegetables for the meatless crowd and, people who delve into "meatier" cooking will appreciate that she chooses mostly chicken, fish, or lamb (with some pork or beef) that are (as I understand) easy to cook in the oven with good results. Some dishes I tried needed a bit of advanced prep -- such as soaking the beans for the Oven-Baked Beans w/ Rosemary & Chili but really all I did was put the dried beans in water the night before and let them soak until I was ready to bake dinner the next day. Whereas a recipe like the Baked Sweet Potato w/ Avocado & Chimichurri could be made on the fly.

I enjoyed the leftovers -- hearty and delicious, I found that dishes such as the baked beans or the Roasted Autumn Vegetables w/ Walnut-Miso Sauce were perfect spooned or smashed on toast the next day. I always consider recipes that leave enough for leftovers the best -- it's like giving your future-self a little helping hand. And, I'm not sure about you but I often find that with roasted vegetables the flavour only gets better the day after you've made it. This is especially true for the Roasted Indian-Spiced Vegetables w/ Lime-Cilantro Butter. Having just a small amount leftover the next day I made some rice so that we could all enjoy a bit of those delicious spiced roasted veggies.

Just as in her other cookbooks, she uses fruit to perfection -- sometimes doing nothing more than roasting them. I made the Ginger-Roasted Plums w/ Lime, Rum & Brown Sugar Cream a couple of times because I loved the flavour of the roasted fruit with the lush, coolness of the cream (and, the brown sugar does indeed become "soft and molasses-like" after it's sat on top of the cream/yogurt mixture). With all the elaborate baking books out there, I feel that fruit is often overlooked as a dessert. The beauty of this ingredient is that not much needs to be done to it in order to enhance its flavour save a bit of time in the oven. Henry perfectly recognizes this, and her fruit-based dessert recipes really reflect this. There are delicious-looking recipes for a Chocolate & Red Wine Cake and Baked Rice Pudding w/ Quince Jelly & Blackberries I can't wait to try too.

What From the Oven to the Table offers is casual, easy cooking at its best. Nothing fussy and recipes that anyone with an oven can make (no special culinary skills required). Just as in Henry's other cookbooks, she really homes in on producing a final dish that's full of flavour. With a dozen cookbooks to her name, From the Oven to the Table follows in step with the kinds of recipes that home cooks have come to expect from Henry (without feeling you're getting one cookbook over and over again).

Please note that this is an excerpt of a review posted to www.shipshapeeatworthy.wordpress.com

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Manda Books for providing me with a free advanced copy of this book. I did not receive monetary compensation for my post, and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Becky Pliego · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this one! I tried several of her recipes and all were delicious! The duck was incredible and super easy to make, perfect for a date night-in.

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not exactly what I had in mind. You don’t just throw a bunch of stuff in a pan and roast it here. Plus, like half the dishes feature huge cuts of lamb, which isn’t that easy to come by at stupid places like Giant Eagle. In Britain, where this author is from, it’s like its own food group. Lots of sausages, too. Humorously, the author has a recipe for sausage and peppers, the title of which she writes out in Italian. That must be exotic cuisine over there, because that’s a basic expectation at every Italian-American social event. Nice to leaf through but disappointing.

[Cristalle · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book is aesthetically beautiful, it was not very user friendly and did not live up to it's tagline of "Simple Dishes That Look After Themselves". Any cookbook that begins by telling me I will have to stock my pantry with hard to find, specialty ingredients to prepare the dishes within is not for me. (There is even a "Mail-Order Sources" section for those really hard-to-find ingredients called for!) I love to cook and try new flavor profiles, but this was not practical.

[Jjanovyak · Rating 3 out of 5]

The recipes here seem awfully imprecise and the methods are unclear. Even dishes that I was drawn to try were a little off-putting for those reasons. But I did go ahead with one. The directions did lead me astray and it took just about twice as long as projected to get done for that reason. But the saving grace is that the promise of intense flavor paid off. I've eaten from the batch four times now, and it's better every time. I may even leaf back through and try another recipe.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recipes for the food I want to cook— I love her ideas, her beautiful use of simple ingredients, her creativity.

[Rachel Schultz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cookbook club I’m in did this for our October selection. The premise is all about ROASTING, sometimes the entire meal in one pan or vessel. All in one pan roasting is a step up from casseroles and slow cooker meals but has some of the same pitfalls, namely making everything mono flavor and mono texture. I just usually still always prefer to prepare starches separately. Lots of general inspiration but many recipes were finicky and high maintenance and certainly not no fail or “simple” as the subtitle promised. Lastly I thought the title choice and cover design were bland.

[The Contented · Rating 2 out of 5]

There isn’t much in here that I would make - sadly. I bought it in the Boxing Day Kindle sale - such is the selection. However the sour cherry brioche bread pudding may just be its redeeming feature. I shall report back.

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cookbook, which came out just about a month ago, is the November cookbook of the month in the Food 52 cookbook club. Henry is a well loved cook within this group, and while this book does seem to have a fair amount of failures to it's credit within the group's home cooks, everything that we have made out of it has been great.

The overarching concept of the book is that you add the ingredients into an ovenproof pot and pop it in the oven. When it comes out, you have a meal.

There are dozens of intriguing recipes in this book, and I will be cooking out of it for some time to come. There are lots of vegetarian options, some of which could be the center of the meal and others that could be assembled into a meal. There are some fussy dishes, and some that do not have quite enough instruction (like what sized pot, and whether it should be baked covered or uncovered are sometimes missing). Read through it first, and then pick a place to start. Recommended.

[Ksenija · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never before in my life written a review for a cookbook, but this one certainly deserves it. To be honest, I am quite surprised by negative reviews and the reasons people put forward for causing their dissatisfaction with the recipes provided in this cookbook.

I do however, feel the need to put my 5-star review in a proper context. First of all, I am a seasoned homemaker, so I do posses the necessary knowledge about various aspects of cooking: how to select products, what to expect from them, how to tweak the temperatures, interchange ingredients, stock up the pantry, work with existing kitchenware and convert volume measurements to metric even without a kitchen scale. Secondly, I am a full-time employed city dweller who cares about nurturing my body with quality food but does not have a lot of time to shop, cook or even dine out.
If you find yourself being in a similar situation, this book will be a God send. You do not have to read many of the explanatory texts provided, but I do suggest you go over the suggested pantry list. That can come handy.

This book offers a wide array of recipes to satisfy your every need, mood and event. I have myself so far tried almost all of them, and I did not find any to be faulty. Moreover, every time I entertain, I reach out for this book and every time my guests are wowed. Quite some of them have gone purchasing the cookbook for themselves. There is quite literally something for any and every taste :vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, carnivore and your sweet tooth for good measure. I especially appreciate there are no pasta dishes as I loath the concept of bulk eating. If you have some cooking experience, you will not fret when a certain recipe calls for an ingredient that is harder to source. In that case, it will not come difficult to substitute for example hot Italian sausages or cheddar cheese with ingredients of a similar taste and consistency. Do this only if you have the knowledge how they behave and interact with the other ingredients in a recipe. I have done this myself multiple times, and it did not diminish my meal enjoyment.

The recipes layout is clear, concise and easy to follow. However, if you are just starting up in the kitchen, you might feel a bit overwhelmed. In that case I would recommend you start with one of Jamie Oliver "5 ingredients" cookbook just to get a feeling how to deal with food and work in a kitchen.

On the other hand, if you are slightly like me, this just might be the only cookbook you will ever need. everything I tasted so far has been delicious, interesting and bullet-proof.

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

A gorgeous book with spectacular photos does not necessarily equal good food. Having cooked from this book over several weeks, I find Diana Henry's recipes overly complicated and time consuming, and the flavors muddled with too many spices and textures. I love spicy food and love to cook, but unfortunately Henry's recipes prove that the best food is often the simplest, letting simple flavors shine. Examples: "Baked fennel with crushed red pepper and parmesan" was good, of course any vegetable topped with parmesan is good. The salsa verde in "Gigot of monkfish with roast lemon salsa verde" was way too strong and sharp for sweet monkfish and ruined it. The recipe was overly complicated and time consuming, lemon slices were roasted to flavor the oil but despite letting it sit for 6 hours I could not taste the lemon in the oil. "Roasted eggplant puree with soft goat cheese, smoked almonds, chili and rosemary" left me longing for my far simpler baba ganoush recipe. "Persian-spiced spatchcocked chicken with quick-pickled red onions and dill yogurt" enlightened me to the value of a simple quick pickle as a side, but the chicken spice rub on the outside skin made little improvement over a plain roast chicken. The spicing of "Roast corn, zucchini and peppers with cumin, chili, sour cream and avocado" was dark and heavy. With all the excellent cookbooks out there, I will not be looking to Diana Henry in the future.

[False · Rating 2 out of 5]

After realizing there were a lot of lamb recipes in this book, I thought, "The author has to be from Australia or New Zealand," and Australia it is. The food is broken down into the following sections: Simple Suppers, My Favorite Ingredient, Asparagus to Zucchini, Beets & Bitter Greens, Cook Until Tender, Weekends and Holidays, and Something Sweet. Excellent photography, but a lot of it dark and moody (think fall and winter) with rough boards and primitive knives and forks and hearty dark meats and fruits. Think "snowbound in Norway." I did copy some recipes to test. The point of the book is being able to roast or slow cook foods with the simplest steps possible. A lot of meat, heavier on chicken. No shellfish. Things I will not be making like sardines or mackerel.

[Kelly Newman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit disappointed. I WANTED to like this cookbook. Some of the recipes are fabulous, but others clearly haven’t been tested enough and took twice as long in the oven despite following all instructions (including size and type of roasting dish). The book has a disclaimer at the back that all recipes were tested in a single convection oven and temperatures were adjusted accordingly. It seems to me the temperature conversion was off (I checked my oven’s temperature with an oven thermometer in advance to determine whether my oven runs hot or cool, so it wasn’t that). Had the recipes been tested in average ovens, perhaps the timing would be right. After two undercooked dishes that had to be cooked for twice the amount of time called for, I’m reluctant to try again.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful dishes, emphasizing vegetables and grains, that require a moderate level of experience

I found the dishes from Diana Henry in From the Oven... to be very appealing, including with ingredients, amount of preparation, and visual aesthetics. The mains, sides, and desserts are simple but with nuanced ingredients that almost made me salivate. There are many meat, chicken, and fish offerings and some vegetarian mains, and many vegetable side dishes and fruit heavy desserts. While I am restricting the amount of chicken I eat, the recipes in the chapter focusing on chicken were extremely tempting. I found this book charming and perfect for the average home cook.

[raccoon reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was "okay" just not my type of food I think. A lot of ingredients or words I don't know about I think because I'm a pretty basic bitch and not a foodie, that I'd have to drive somewhere fancy to buy. All the pictures are so dark and brown. They remind me of the inside of a Dutch painting from the Golden Age, like a peasant or servant might at any moment be drawn into the picture... like the food was lifted from some scene like "Peasants in an Interior." I don't mean that as an insult. It just didn't make it very appetizing to me. But if you need to whip up something like, say, Poussins with Black Olive and Anchovy Butter in a jiffy then this book has got you covered.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was really a 1-star for me in terms of usefulness but I can’t fault the author for that. My family has a long list of foods they are allergic/intolerant to and that rules out so many of these recipes. I only ended up at 3 stars because there would be lots of “specialty ingredient” shopping if I was going to make very many of these. I’ve been down that road several times in the past and ended up throwing a lot of things out. I didn’t want to make the investment and take that risk this time around.

[Garry Whitmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

A disapointment glad I paid only minimum price (£0.99) for this book. Recipes are over fancy and feature ingredients most day to day folk wouldn't consider eating. Who cooks a decent sausage with blackberries, or chicken with pomegranetes just not my cup of tea. That said if you like the ingredients and style of cooking you may find it most useful. If considering purchase suggest you preview on Amazon first to see if it suits.

[Annamarie Rice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so excited to get this book from the library. I made the baked beans. Ethereal! Delicious. And then the rest let me down. On page 142, de says that you have to use “exactly the size of dish stipulated “, but NEVER actually tells you the SIZE. Ugh, that’s why I use a cookbook and NOT my wits alone! And everything calls for preserved lemons, but there is no Actual recipe for the preserved lemons. Such a tease.

[Darlene Messenger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent UK cookbook with recipes meant for simple gatherings of family and friends. This digital edition is easy to navigate in two ways, through the link to the sections or the index of recipes. Genius!! Many recipes are a combination of meat and fresh vegetables that pair together using herb and sauce blends for flavoring. I'm looking forward to using this cookbook often, especially in autumn and winter.

[Shauna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good ingredient profiles but the recipes seem unnecessarily complicated for what they are. I’m assuming some of the complexity is justified but the author often doesn’t explain why you’re being asked to take extra steps, so the overall experience can be frustrating. She also has a bad habit of dropping cooked ingredients into the recipe without addressing how or when these ingredients were supposed to be cooked (eg “roasted squash”) - so be sure to read the recipes in full before starting.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the idea of this book (yay for oven cooking!) and as per usual, Diana Henry's writing about food is amazing. I would happily read her shopping lists probably. Unfortunately, not many of the recipes jumped out at me to put everything down and make them now (probably more me than the book though!)

I am looking forward to trying the South American spiced chicken dish though!

[Nancy Cohen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just read another review as I go to write mine and it’s exactly everything I want to say. This is a beautiful book to leaf through but based on the large amount of lamb and fish that I can’t easily source, I’d probably never make anything in it. Some cookbooks are coffee table books and I was hoping for a spattered on dog eared cookbook that was my go to

[Mairzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely book with interesting recipes none of which I will be making during this difficult shopping time. Almost every recipe calls for things I don't normally stock in my kitchen and that are not found in my local grocery store. Shopping is difficult enough during this pandemic without having to go to multiple stores to find ingredients but I did enjoy reading the recipes.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I’ve made every chicken thigh recipe in the chapter she’s dedicated to them - all easy winners! These recipes are very low or fairly low effort but high reward. I do find some of the ingredients either a little repetitive (lots of potatoes) and some hard to find. Despite having a summer veggie section, this book feels very winter-y, with moody photos throughout

[Beka · Rating 3 out of 5]

As always, Diana Henry's books are filled with beautiful photographs and delicious sounding recipes, but somehow they never seem like something I want to make. Not really sure why, but I still love to look through them.

[Julie Botnick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this cookbook. I've made several dishes so far, I've only had to buy a couple easy to find ingredients each time, and they've come out perfectly. A great beginner cookbook and one that'll impress for advanced chefs, too.

[Karista Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

There isn't one recipe in this book that I haven't liked. So much delicious flavor in each recipe, easy to follow directions and so perfect for everyday cooking. Forever a huge fan of Diana Henry cookbooks!

[Beth Russell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not simple!

Though some of these look lovely, I found very few for which I could get the ingredients locally and which didn’t require a pantry of special items or pans. Overall it comes off too fancy for the average harried home cook.

[Abigail Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it! What is brilliant about Diana is that not only does she give you recipes but ideas to make the recipes your own. I took part of her recipe to make the most gorgeous beer-infused yorkshire puddings and they were incredible.

[Aurélie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is such a great inspiration! I love that there is a good proportion of recipes with only vegetables! And I love that there is often a mix of fruits, vegetables and meats in the same dish! It’s super well explained as well.