Together: Memorable Meals Made Easy

by Jamie Oliver

Being with our loved ones has never felt so important, and great food is the perfect excuse to get together in any fashion.

Each chapter features a meal, from seasonal feasts to curry nights, with a simple, achievable menu that can be mostly prepped ahead.

Jamie's aim – whether you're following the full meal or choosing just one of the 120 individual recipes – is to minimise your time in the kitchen so you can maximise the time you spend with your guests.

Jamie's Together also helps to take the stress out of cooking by arming you with tips, tricks and hacks to stay organised and get ahead of the game.

Inspirational but practical, Together is about comfort, celebration, creating new memories and, above all, sharing fantastic food.

This is about memorable meals, made easy. Let's tuck in – together!

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

360 pages, Hardcover

First published October 26, 2021

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

James Trevor "Jamie" Oliver, sometimes known as The Naked Chef, is an English chef and media personality well known for his growing list of food-focused television shows, his more recent roles in campaigning against the use of processed foods in national schools, and his campaign to change unhealthy diets and poor cooking habits for the better across the United Kingdom.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely pictures. Hubby placed bookmarks in 4 recipes to try:
1. Easy Baked Eggs - this looks super easy with 3 ingredients: eggs, ripe cherry tomatoes and avocados
2. Fragrant Squash Curry - I have made other squash curries, however this one has cherry tomatoes and canned pineapple rings in juice in it.
3. Chopped Salad - Bombay mix, crunchy veg, mint and orange. This sounds interesting.
4. Grilled and Roasted Potatoes - lemon, garlic and sage. Who doesn't love roasted potatoes! However, I already have a great recipe, and I am usually looking for something a bit different to try.

[Denver Public Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get top chefs out of the fancy kitchen restaurants and away from high rolling clientele, and they will confess to loving comfort food! Home during the pandemic and faced with feeding his own family, Oliver goes back to his roots and serves up themed meals to be put on your table. From his Curry Night section, a recipe for Golden Paneer with tangy spinach stands out, while Colorful Comfort offers Tender Sticky Eggplants with star anise, chili jam and sesame seeds shines with just six ingredients. Eyeing the holiday cake I got from a neighbor, Oliver's Banana Panettone Pudding stood out - especially the caramely sauce that goes on top! One nice addition not seen in many cookbooks - nutritional info for every recipe in the back matter. Very good index included.

[Claire Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love a good Jamie. Lots of lovely ideas and inspo here!

[Gayle Pritchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a fun and heartfelt book with fantastic recipes and beautiful photography. Such a passionate and fun chef, Oliver also makes it fun and easy to create beautiful and healthy food. I love this.

[Ninja Neko · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a feeling Jamie's marketing team had expected the pandemic to blow over a bit sooner. Jamie's 25th (!) cookbook focuses on "eating together", and is organized around dinner party menus. Some for up to 12 people even. The result is a very impractical cookbook... Not a whole lot of dinner parties nowadays, and even during times when we do throw them I rarely go for a multi-course fixed set blowout like the suggested menus here. Some recipes do look nice for a weekend family meal too (that boeuf bourguinon), but are hard to find back as there are no chapters organizing mains, sides, desserts,... just menus. So can't say I would use this book for gathering dinner inspiration either.
In that sense I enjoyed How to eat a peach much more - again a menu format that doesn't really work for me, but interlaced with stories and suggestions that made the book much more enjoyable/valuable to me personally.

[Nadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love me some Jamie Oliver! Delicious recipes paired with mouthwatering photos featuring plenty of fresh, seasonal produce! Memorable meals for all occasions.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book with wonderful recipes!

[Simon Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good variety of recipes, many which are quite simple. As with most cook books you will need to make sure you have the ingredients. Nice bright pictures of tasty dishes which encourage you to try the recipes.
There is a cocktails section which is interesting... If you have a drinks cupboard!

[Katey Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the concept of an entire menu for those occasions, special or otherwise, because eating with those you love should always be a yummy affair!

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book as I love some of Jamie's earlier books. The book was marketed in the brochure as being "full of family-friendly memorable meals", however none of the recipes would bring our family "together". There was maybe 2 recipes that I thought I might try, both were sweet desserts. I'm not sure I know many families who would eat many of the recipes within this book...
The layout was difficult to focus on as the recipes were in a few different formats. The photos were pretty, but there were LOTS of them.
The nutritional information in the back of the book was handy.
All-in-all I'm glad I borrowed the book from the library rather than purchasing.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful!

The recipes look beautiful, and I made 3 of the dishes! They were as easy as described, and very good. I’ve always wanted to make panna cotta, and this recipe turned out great. That garlic bread, so good! The crusted chicken was a hit with my kids and it was quick to put together

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Looks pretty but is a terrible cookbook. Layout set for style - not function. Skimpy instructions, no index, and difficult to find dishes. You can learn far more from watching his show than you can from this book. Definitely don't waste your money; borrow from the library instead.

[T · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lovely presentations, but very few recipes I would actually attempt to make.

[Val Robson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jamie Oliver's latest book is a clear 5 stars for me. What is not to like?! It is beautifully laid out with recipes on separate pages in a good clear font. Also large enough to be able to view when at a distance in the kitchen. The photos of the food are first class and very well composed. There are also some lovely photos of Jamie and his family and friends which ooze a sense of joy and happiness.

I've done several recipes and really loved them all. My favourite is the chocolate orange crème brûlée. My guests loved it and so did I. It will definitely be a regular for when I have friends over and maybe a sneaky few just for me too!

There's a great index of 12 pages showing vegetarian recipes and those where ingredients can be easily swapped to be vegetarian. I really liked the section at the end with Jamie's advice and tips on ingredients and equipment, There is also a very good section on nutrition where the nutritional breakdown of each recipe is given.

This is my favourite cookbook so far from Jamie and is a great accompaniment to his excellent TV series 'Together' where he cooks these recipes. The TV programme has been a huge boon during the dark days of covid lockdowns and isolation. Seeing Jamie's passion and enthusiasm for cooking, and also that of his family members, is a great mental health lifter.

I love everything about this book down to the cover, the size, the cheerful orange ribbon bookmark. This will become a constant 'go to' book on my kitchen shelf and might even surpass my well worn 1983 copy of Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course as my favourite cookery book. Sorry Delia!

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jamie’s cookbook is beautifully presented and the pictures make you want to eat. Like some of his other books it’s presented in menu format which is nice when you gather but a bit harder to mix and match if you don’t want everything on a menu. I’m not sure if I will use it the way it is intended there are a couple of things I wouldn’t mind trying but I lot that I probably won’t try. His recipes don’t have a lot of preamble, the ingredients are simple and easy to find, the recipes appear to be to the point.

[Zoey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oliver delivers on his concept: celebratory menus for special gatherings that somehow seem doable, despite their many components. After putting out at least 1 cookbook a year since 1999, Oliver has it down with polish: photos of his family and friends contribute to a sense that this aspirational kind of cooking can also be ours. I appreciate tips on nutrition, ingredients, and kitchen tools. The book assumes a certain level of wealth when it comes to leisure time, grocery budgets, and access to ingredients, but this is not uncommon for celebrity cookbooks.

[Zeina · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Cooking Together" by Chef Jamie Oliver is a delightful culinary journey that brings people closer through the joy of cooking. Oliver's passion for food and his easy-to-follow recipes make this book a fantastic addition to any kitchen. With a focus on shared experiences, the book encourages friends and family to come together and create memorable meals. From scrumptious appetizers to mouthwatering desserts, Oliver's recipes cater to a wide range of tastes. With beautiful photography and helpful tips, "Cooking Together" is not just a cookbook; it's an invitation to bond over delicious food.

[Christine Ansorge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must consult book for entertaining. The make-a-head aspect is empowering. The nutrition information in the back is something every cookbook should have. The book is also beautiful with pictures you want to linger on. I’m especially partial to the picnic.

[V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this cookbook. It provides alternatives and tips for the meals, like what size cake pan to use on the Tangerine Dream Cake if you don't have a bundt pan, or optional embellishments to add to the recipes. I also really enjoyed the "Veggie Love" and "Vegan Love" notes at the bottom of recipes where substitutes can be applied for vegetarian and vegan diets. Will probably start with the Chicken, Sausage, and Bacon Puff Pie and the Chocolate Semifreddo.

[Debbie Tollefson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful photography but nothing I’d be tempted to make

[db · Rating 3 out of 5]

Made the Naan book and it was delish!

[Margaret Gerberding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jamie Oliver gives us new recipes to try!

[Marty Logue · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice book and i like the way it is laid out, but most of the dishes you can find in all Jamie's early books with just a few tiny changes to the recipes .

[JC Cornell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like a lot of the recipes in here, but not so much that I want to own it for always.

[Jenny Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s more of a 3.5
Lots of lovely recipes I know I will make but others I may not bother with.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Nicole lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love, this book reminds me of Jamie's old classics, great recipes here, very easy to make, or get inspired from.

[Deanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yummy meals! I had caught Oliver's show, Together, on PBS and enjoyed reading the follow up recipes and narrative.

[Aasinathena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This my first read from Jamie Oliver's books. Didn't disappoint I should say !

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great cocktails at the end of the book!